Inside the life of Sebastian Korda: Famous family to dating daughter of Ballon d’Or winner
As tennis looks to its next generation bidding to make a breakthrough at the highest level, Sebastian Korda has certainly done his chances no harm. The world No 26 rose up the rankings after a brilliant run in the Australian Open in January.
The Florida native equalled his best ever performance at a Grand Slam and the desire to emulate his father Petr’s run to the title in 1998 nearly came to fruition.
After beating two-time Aussie Open finalist Daniil Medvedev, the 22-year-old followed it up with a hard-fought victory over Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz to reach the quarter-final stage for the first time in his career.
He needed five sets to get past Hurkacz, though, including a nail-biting final-set tiebreak in which he relied on some superstition.
Korda’s run in Melbourne, however, came to an unfortunate end after he was forced to retire against Karen Khachanov with a wrist injury. He was trailing 7-6, 6-3, 3-0 when he was forced to withdraw.
Korda is a former junior champion at the Australian Open and won his first and, so far, only ATP title two years ago.
He also came a point away from defeating Novak Djokovic – the eventual Aus Open winner – at the Adelaide International on January 8, demonstrating his ability to perform against the best.
Incredibly, Korda comes from a family with a rich history in sport. As mentioned previously, his father Petr, was a tennis player who captured the Australian Slam 25 years ago.
