A relatively quick rise for Korda on Paris clay
He reaches fourth round of French Open, where he will face his hero, Nadal.
PARIS — Sebastian Korda was 9, heart set on a hockey career, when he went with his father, Petr, to the 2009 U. S. Open. By then, Petr — 1998 Australian Open champion, 1992 French Open f inalist — had retired as a competitor and turned to coaching.
Sebastian watched Petr’s player, Radek Stepanek, face Novak Djokovic at night in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“Totally packed. I thought it was the coolest thing. Went home, came back the next year, and said, ‘ This is exactly what I want to do,’ ” Korda said. “The rest is history.”
“Sebi,” as he’s called, is now 20 and made a bit of history at Roland Garros on Friday, beating Spain’s Pedro Martinez 6- 4, 6- 3, 6- 1 in a rain- interrupted match to become the youngest American man in the fourth round in Paris since Michael Chang was 19 in 1991.
“Everybody is always asking him: ‘ Are you the son of Petr Korda?’ Which I would love to change in the
future,” the elder Korda said in a telephone interview, “so that people ask me, ‘ Are you Sebastian’s father?’ ”
The 213th- ranked Korda is the f irst qualifier to make it this far at the clay- court Grand Slam tournament since 2011. He joined another 20- year- old, 239th- ranked French wild- card entry Hugo Gaston, as the f irst men from outside the top 200 to make it to the French Open’s last 16 since 2002.
“Amazing,” said Gaston, who sat in his sideline seat and cried into a towel while fans chanted his first name after a 2- 6, 6- 3, 6- 3, 4- 6, 6- 0 upset of Stan Wawrinka, whose three Grand Slam trophies include the 2015 title at Roland Garros.
On Sunday, Korda plays 12- time champion Rafael Nadal, while Gaston meets U. S. Open champion Dominic Thiem.
The other men’s matchups on the draw’s bottom half: No. 6 Alexander Zverev, the runner- up to Thiem in New York, against 19- year- old Jannik Sinner, and No. 12 Diego Schwartzman against Lorenzo Sonego.
Women’s fourth- rounders set up by Friday’s results are No. 1 Simona Halep vs. 19- year- old Iga Swiatek, No. 3 Elina Svitolina vs. Caroline Garcia, No. 5 Kiki Bertens vs. Martina Trevisan, and Nadia Podorska vs. Barbora Krejcikova.
When the prospect of facing Nadal was mentioned at Korda’s post- match news conference — which took place while the King of Clay still was in the second set of his 6- 1, 6- 4, 6- 0 victory over Stefano Travaglia — there was zero hesitation.
“I’m praying that he wins. I mean, he’s my biggest idol. He’s one of the reasons I play tennis. From him, I have the never- give- up mentality. Whenever I’m on court, I try to be like him,” said Korda, who then dropped this footnote: “Growing up, I named my cat ‘ Rafa’ after him.”