Australian Open: Quarterfinals! Sebastian Korda keeps his nerve against Hurkacz
Sebastian Korda (ATP No. 31) is in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open 2023. The 22-year-old American defeated Hubert Hurkacz in five sets.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Jan 22, 2023, 08:18 am
In the end he still made it: Sebastian Korda won against Hurkacz (ATP No. 11) 3: 6, 6: 3, 6: 2, 1: 6 and 7: 6 (7) - after a roller coaster ride above all in the tie-break of the deciding set.
While the first rounds weren't very exciting, things got exciting at the end. Korda first had to fend off two breakballs from Hurkacz at 5: 5, then pulled away from 1: 3 to 7: 3 in the tie-break, then showed nerves and messed up simple backhand balls. Exactly the backhand, specifically his parry shot along the line, was there again in the end, as was the case with match point for the greatest success of his young career so far.
"I just stayed as calm as I could," Korda said of his rather slow start at the beginning. In the end, his superstition about the towel saved him. "Whenever I went to the towel, I won the point. So I kept doing that."
Korda follows up after defeating Medvedev
In the previous round, Korda had taken last year's finalist Daniil Medvedev out of the tournament in three sets and showed great tennis against Hurkacz, especially in sets two and three. At the beginning of the year he had already won the final at the ATP tournament in Adelaide.
Jim Courier finally asked on the court how he could remain so calm after such a success – Korda assured him that he would shout out his joy in the shower.
Later: Tsitsipas against Sinner!
He now meets 18th seed Karen Khachanov, who previously beat Yoshihito Nishioka 6:0, 6:0 and 7:6 (4) - in the second round he only gave his opponent two points.
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jiri Lechecka (here in the live scores) are currently playing against each other, and the top game of the day starts at 9 a.m. with the duel between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Jannik Sinner.
laver arena