Editor's Note: A version of this story appears in the 2021 US Open program.
One year before Petr Korda won the 1998 Australian Open title, he dealt a crushing defeat to world No. 1 Pete Sampras in the Round of 16 at the ‘97 US Open. It was the inaugural year of the new Arthur Ashe Stadium, and Korda took out the American favorite in a fifth-set tiebreak.
This year at Wimbledon, another Korda broke the hearts of a nation. Making his Centre Court debut on his 21st birthday, Sebastian Korda, Petr’s son, dismissed British No. 1 Dan Evans to book his second Grand Slam Round-of-16 appearance in the space of nine months.
“Sebi” doesn’t mind being compared to his father, the former world No. 2. But fortunately for American tennis, the Bradenton-born Floridian drapes himself in the Stars and Stripes, while Petr played under the Czech flag.
“My dad, he’s incredibly supportive,” Korda said at a 2020 French Open press conference. “But my goal in life is to win two Grand Slams, so I have one more than he has,” he added with a smile.
Sampras, of course, recovered from that 1997 defeat to close out his legendary career with his 14th major title and fifth New York crown at the 2002 US Open. Andy Roddick followed with his 2003 triumph in Ashe. Since then, American men have advanced beyond the singles quarterfinals in New York twice, the last time coming in 2006, when Roddick was runner-up.
Fifteen years later, the ascending Korda is the best bet to change that statistic—at least according to Roddick and another American legend, Andre Agassi, with whom he’s developed a close relationship over the past year.
“I’ll say it in no uncertain terms,” Roddick recently commented on Tennis Channel. “This is our best American prospect in a long, long time.”
“What I've been saying to myself is just patience. Keep building my body, brick by brick. Just keep going the way I'm doing it right now.” - Sebastian Korda
Agassi, meanwhile, has become a mentor for Korda, after Petr arranged for the pair to work together during a two-week preseason training block in Vegas.
“He's just a special person,” Sebi said during his Wimbledon run. “We talk basically every single day, every single match, about how I'm feeling and what I should do.”
The bond is fitting. Even Korda has said he sees similarities between the high-achieving Agassi family—Andre, Steffi Graf and their two children (one of whom is an MLB prospect at USC)—and his own. Korda’s mother, Regina Rajchrtová, was a WTA Top 30 player who twice reached the Round of 16 at the US Open. His two sisters, Nelly and Jessica Korda, are both multiple-trophy winners on the LPGA Tour, with world No. 1 Nelly also winning gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Sebastian, whose ATP ranking rose to a career-best No. 46 after his Wimbledon run, was eligible for the U.S. Olympic men’s tennis team, but opted out in order to compete in the US Open Series ahead of his second main-draw appearance in Flushing Meadows.
It was just the latest calculated decision made by Korda and his coaching team, which is headed by his father but includes USTA Player Development National Coach Dean Goldfine (who previously worked with Roddick and Todd Martin) and former Czech pro Theodor Devoty.
Another difficult decision— one that proved prescient—saw Korda decline to make the trip Down Under this year, where he could have competed in Australian Open qualifying after a required quarantine in Melbourne. Korda was coming off his first ATP Tour final, a surprise run to the Delray Beach Open title match.
But during the time that Korda would have been confined to his hotel in Melbourne, he instead battled his way to his second ATP Challenger title in three months, in Quimper, France. That victory punctuated a 22-3 stretch at five tournaments, from October 2020 through January 2021, including his romp to the fourth round at Roland Garros as a qualifier.
A Miami Open quarterfinal followed in March, and then Korda won his first ATP title in May on the red clay of Parma, Italy. The unseeded champion won the 250 title without dropping a set, making the Kordas the third father-son duo to win ATP titles in the Open era (joining the Dents, Phil and Taylor, and the Krishnans, Ramanathan and Ramesh).
Pictured below: Sebastian Korda (right) with father and coach Petr Korda on the practice court at the US Open.
Despite his pedigree—or perhaps because of it—Korda is very deliberately taking the long way to the top. Since winning the Australian Open boys’ singles title at age 17 in 2018, his rise up the pro ranks has been slow and steady.
“What I've been saying to myself—and everybody—is just patience,” Korda says of his progression. “Keep building my body, brick by brick. Just keep going the way I'm doing it right now.”
Korda first cracked the ATP’s Top 500 in mid-2019, finishing the year inside the Top 250. Following the pandemic-induced tour shutdown last season—and after his training block with Agassi—Korda began to catch fire.
“During quarantine, I was running 40 minutes a day,” he said in a May Tennis.com interview. “The most I ran at one time was 15 miles. A lot of the guys now are in the gym doing weights, but my parents and [fitness coach] Marek [Vseticek] don’t believe in that. I want to be stable in my upper body, but be able to run and play all day.”
When tour play resumed, Korda notched his first Top 100 win, defeating the-No. 54 Gilles Simon to qualify for and make his ATP Masters 1000 debut at the Western & Southern Open. A week later, Korda got his first taste of Grand Slam main-draw action, battling No. 12 seed Denis Shapovalov—a 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist—across four sets in the opening round of the 2020 US Open.
Then came Roland Garros. Korda mounted a six-match win streak (including qualifying), advancing to the Round of 16 before bowing out to Rafael Nadal. Though Korda lost against his idol—for whom he named his cat, Rafa—he left an impression on the Spaniard.
“He has a lot of ingredients to become a big star of this sport,” Nadal said before their match. “I think he has an amazing future.” After their meeting on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Nadal was even more convinced: “I really believe that we are looking at a great player.”
In a February interview with USTA.com, Goldfine expanded on just what makes Korda special.
“First of all, his body,” Goldfine began. “He’s 6-foot-5, and he moves better than most 6-5 guys. So that’s a big part of it. The ball coming off his racquet, it’s very easy power for him. And he has great hands, good touch. His hand-eye coordination is off the charts.”
Goldfine sees similarities between Korda and Todd Martin—who he guided to a US Open final and semifinal during their time together from 1996-2002—including their size, strong backhands, well-placed serves and high tennis IQs.
Having showcased his game on Chatrier and Centre Court, Korda might next be expected to play—and win—in Arthur Ashe Stadium. It would bring his young career full circle, 12 years after his tennis dreams began in earnest at the 2009 US Open. That year, a 9-year-old Korda became hooked on the sport after he accompanied his father—then Radek Stepanek’s coach—to a match against Novak Djokovic in the stadium court.
Whether Korda gets his Ashe victory during this 2021 US Open or later, few doubt that it will arrive in short order. Either way, the patient prospect won’t be moved from his brick-by-brick tack.
Korda’s methodical approach shined through even when his Wimbledon star turn ended. After his razor-thin fourth-round loss to Karen Khachanov, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8, with a wild deciding set that featured 13 breaks of serve, the American maintained a positive outlook.
“I'm incredibly happy,” he told the press. Not the words you might expect from someone who, just minutes earlier, was a few points from his first major quarterfinal.
“Today I played my first-ever five-set match,” Korda explained. “It was a whole new experience for me. I'm just learning. Every tournament, I'm learning new things. It's probably the best thing I could do for myself right now.”
Casual tennis fans might have learned something too. Sebastian Korda is the real deal.
