Nelly Korda Fires Up Her Tennis Spirit Through a Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal Approach for 6th Title Chase

Tennis runs deep in the blood of Nelly Korda. Her father, Petr Korda, is the 1998 Australian Open Tennis Champion. Additionally, her mother Regina Rajchrtova won two singles and three doubles on the ITF circuit between 1984 and 1987, and her brother Sebastian Korda is in the 23rd position in the World’s men’s tennis list.

Naturally, the 25-year-old grew up with the sport being an integral part of her life. For her, it was Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer that she religiously looked up to, and turns out, they still have remained her idol. It is, with a blend of their attitude and nature, that she believes she will be able to take home the sixth victory of the season.

Korda is currently in the lead, headed to the final round of the Mizuho Americas Open. As the penultimate round concluded on Saturday, she was asked about the source of her inspiration. She stated that she has always had the mentality to continue with full effort, energy, or commitment, without slowing down or hesitating, no matter what the result is, which was what she learned from her idols. “I’ve looked up to great athletes like Nadal and Roger Federer, which is the blend of the two I hope I have,” she added.

She further went on to state how having the grace with which Federer used to conclude his games, and the tough fight that Nadal used to put up, is the only thing that will work for her at the moment. Well, it has undoubtedly been working with her. Nelly Korda was on a winning streak with five consecutive events until Rose Zhang defeated her at the Cognizant Founders Cup earlier this month, and she had a T7 finish.

However, things are starting to look better for her at The Mizuho Americas Open, and she might finally be able to grab her sixth victory of the season if she continues to play like this in the ultimate round on Sunday.

Nelly Korda’s performance through the first three rounds
Nelly Korda did not have the greatest start at the Mizuho Americas Open. She carded only three birdies. Having ended the round with a bogey on the 18th hole, she was tied for the 17th position. However, on Friday, she made quite a jump on the leaderboard from T17 to T3 with a 6-under, 138. She was just 3 strokes away from Atthaya Thitikul, who entered round 3 with the lead.