Sebastian Korda is backing up his words about being one of the best young players by continually producing superb tennis.
The American spent a good chunk of this year dealing with an injury that always cut his momentum. He never managed to play a couple of consecutive months to rediscover the tennis he had earlier this year when he ousted Medvedev at the Australian Open.
He's slowly getting there as he keeps playing amazing tennis. He made the final in Astana last week, and while he did lose it to Adrian Mannarino, he's bounced back pretty strongly at the 2023 Shanghai Masters by besting Daniil Medvedev, among other things.
He added a win over Francisco Cerundolo today to keep it going as he booked his place in the quarter-final. The match was a very competitive one as two very good players faced off.
Neither player broke through in the opening set despite chances on both sides. The changes only came late as the first few games of the match were dominant from both players.
Korda first saved a break point at 5-5 only to create his first one in the following game. He broke his opponent to take the opening set, and it was just a perfect sequence to finish off a competitive opening set.
The consequence of that was kind of predictable. Korda was lifted by winning the opening set, while Cerundolo kind of faded off a little bit. The American broke his opponent for the second time to take a 4-1 lead. His serve allowed him to keep the lead briefly but Cerundolo fought back and forced a tiebreak.
It was a close one, but Korda won setting the final score of 7-5 7-6(6) for Korda, who moves to the quarter-final and gets closer to his goal of finishing in the Top 20. Next up is going to be either Jannik Sinner or Ben Shelton.
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