Korda of U.S. tops Medvedev, 2-time finalist
MELBOURNE, Australia — Sebastian Korda comes by his athleticism and competitive instincts honestly. From Dad, the 1998 Australian Open champion. From Mom, also a former professional tennis player. And from two big sisters, both current golf pros.
Add some mentorship from eight-time major champ Andre Agassi and a couple of coaches, including former player Radek Stepanek, and maybe it shouldn’t be all that surprising that Korda, a 22year-old American never past the fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament, would manage to eliminate two-time runner-up Daniil Medvedev at Melbourne Park.
Korda’s attacking brand of tennis carried him past the seventhseeded Medvedev 7-6 (7), 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the Australian Open’s third round Friday night, the latest in a string of victories by young men from the U.S. against top players this week.
“I always was told how good of a tennis player I can be. Now (I’m) just getting the right people around me, building a really solid team, just trusting the process,” said the 29th-seeded Korda, who was the 2018 junior champion in Australia. “I’m growing as a person, as a player. Just trying to do the right things. Just have fun, enjoy it — good things will happen.”
Medvedev won the U.S. 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.
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 won the point on 75% of his trips to the net, 36 of 48.
“I kind of knew what I had to do. I stuck with it, even when I was going up and down with the emotions,” Korda said.
To reach his first Slam quarterfinal, Korda will need to defeat No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz on Sunday. That day’s other men’s matches: Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Jannik Sinner, Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Jiri Lehecka, and Karen Khachanov vs. Yoshihito Nishioka.
Nishioka was a 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-2 winner over Piedmont native Mackenzie McDonald, while another one of the eight U.S. 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: Iga Swiatek vs. Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula vs. Barbora Krejcikova, Coco Gauff vs. Jelena Ostapenko, and Victoria Azarenka vs. Zhu Lin.
As well as Pegula is playing, dropping zero sets and just 11 games total along the way to Week 2, you might think she would be completely pleased with how things are going.
But Pegula is a self-described perfectionist, and 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.
“I was annoyed,” Pegula said after the 65-minute contest.
By what, exactly? Well, the 28-year-old from New York was cruising, having won 10 of the first 11 games, when she stumbled ever so slightly while serving with a 30love lead. She missed three first serves in a row. She put a backhand into the net. She got lobbed. She double-faulted. She started muttering under her breath. She sent a backhand long to end an 11-stroke exchange. Add it up, and Pegula got broken there, her lead in the second set shrinking to 4-2. For three minutes, her play was less than ideal.
“When I was younger, it came off as kind of a bad attitude. I’d get really negative or down on myself,” Pegula said, adding that she has worked on “not being so hard on myself during the matches.”