An hour after his first catastrophic attempt at snuffing out the best player in the world, Sebastian Korda stepped up to the baseline to serve for his rollercoaster third-round match against Carlos Alcaraz once again.
It would have been reasonable for the American to feel his tension even more profoundly, to collapse even more dramatically, but his determination won through. In front of his home crowd in his home state, Korda kept his head and held his nerve to close out the greatest upset of the ATP season and his career, defeating the top seed Alcaraz 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in the third round of the Miami Open.
This was a seismic upset secured by a supreme performance from Korda, the 32nd seed. For an hour, he played as well as he could. His serve was dominant, completely shutting one of the best returners in the game out of all of his service games. He pulverised the ball with his clean, destructive ground strokes. He could do anything he wanted with the ball, volleying brilliantly as he frequently closed down the net and matching Alcaraz’s variation with impressive feel of his own.
Korda had established a 6-3, 5-3 lead but then he crumbled badly, losing seven consecutive points and quickly finding himself in a final set. It took immense resilience for the American to pull himself together and find a way through a tight third set.
“I think it was a tough match,” said Alcaraz. “I think Sebi was incredible today. Played such a great game. A lot of tight, tight moments that I just didn’t make the most of it. I think he was better on that points, on that moments. I would say that was the key of the match. So just congrats to him. I think he deserves it.”
While Korda soared, Alcaraz cut an increasingly frustrated figure. Alcaraz interactions with his coach, Samuel Lopez, included the Spaniard shouting “I can’t do any more, I can’t do any more!” and “I’m going home, I’m going home!” Still, he continued to fight and nearly produced a spectacular comeback through his frustrations.
There has never been any doubt about Korda’s shotmaking abilities. A son of the 1998 Australian Open champion. Petr Korda, the younger Korda has been considered an excellent talent since his junior days when he won the Australian Open boys title and rose to No 1 in the ITF junior rankings. He has since risen as high as No 15 in the rankings, enjoying the occasional top 10 win, but he is yet to make the next step. It is up to him to take advantage of this an enormous victory, and ride the momentum forward, rather than allowing it to be an anomalous result.
Alcaraz, meanwhile, will head to the clay-court season in an interesting position. Last year, Miami was the site of one of the toughest moments in the Spaniard’s career and he was completely void of confidence as he lost in round two. The loss prompted him to take a holiday and disconnect from tennis, a decision that led to him turning his form around on the clay.
Things are not nearly as fraught here but this is the latest stage in Alcaraz’s development and learnings as a top player. Considering the level he performs at every week, his opponents have no choice but to swing freely and attempt to play without inhibitions and digging deep for their very best. Staying on top for so long means finding a path to victory all the same.