Melbourne, Jan 20: Sebastian Korda beat two-time runner-up Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (7), 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the Australian Open’s third round on Friday, the latest in a string of victories by young American men against top players at Melbourne Park.
Korda is a 22-year-old from Florida who is seeded 29th, is the son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr and counts eight-time major champ Andre Agassi as a mentor.
Korda equaled his best showing at any Grand Slam tournament by reaching the round of 16.
The No. 7-seeded Medvedev won the US Open two years ago and made it to the final in Australia in 2021, when he lost to Novak Djokovic, and 2022, when he lost to Rafael Nadal after holding a two-set lead. The Russian also was briefly ranked No. 1 last season.
This result comes on the heels of two other attention-grabbing victories by players from the US, whose men last won a Grand Slam title 20 years ago. On Wednesday, Mackenzie McDonald beat No. 1 seed Nadal. On Thursday, Jenson Brooksby beat No. 2 seed Casper Ruud. And now it was Korda’s turn to add his name to the list.
On this night in Rod Laver Arena, it was Korda who dictated most of the points, who put his shots right where he wanted them, who charged forward with verve and slick volleys. He even threw in the occasional drop shot, for good measure.
He compiled nearly twice as many winners as Medvedev, 50-28, and although there were plenty of unforced errors off his racket, too, that did not hurt the American.
To get to his first Slam quarterfinal, Korda will need to get past No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz on Sunday. That day’s other men’s matches will be No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. No. 15 Jannik Sinner, No. 6 Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Jiri Lehecka, and No. 18 Karen Khachanov vs. No. 31 Yoshihito Nishioka.
Nishioka was a 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-2 winner over McDonald, while another one of the eight US men to reach the third round was sent home when Khachanov topped No. 16 Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9).
The women’s upcoming fourth-round matches: No. 1 Iga Swiatek vs. No. 9 Elena Rybakina, No. 3 Jessica Pegula vs. No. 20 Barbora Krejcikova, No. 7 Coco Gauff vs. No. 17 Jelena Ostapenko, and No. 24 Victoria Azarenka against either No. 6 Maria Sakkari or Zhu Lin, who were playing each other Friday night.
As well as Pegula is playing tennis at the moment, dropping zero sets and just 11 games total along the way to Week 2, you might think she’d be completely pleased with how things are going.
Ah, but Pegula is a self-described perfectionist. And so she gave herself a bit of a hard time about what happened late in the second set of her 6-0, 6-2 victory over Marta Kostyuk. (AP)
