Sebastian Korda is returning to one of his favorite tournaments on the calendar and talked about the immeasurable impact that eight-time champion Andre Agassi has had on his career.
Korda is making his third straight main draw appearance at the Citi Open this week as the eighth seed, opening up against Russia's Alexander Shevchenko on Tuesday evening. Returning to Washington always ranks higher on Korda's schedule grid.
That is not purely because it's on home soil, but it's a tournament that evokes plenty of wonderful memories from his childhood days. The Citi Open was among his pitstops as a junior traveling with his father who used to coach Radek Stepanek over a decade ago.
"Washington has to be one of my favorite stops definitely on tour, just kind of being here as a 12, 13, and 14-year-old kid with my dad and Radek Stepanek. Just to kind of experience everything was really cool."
"Being in the locker room for the first time and just being around the players, I have a lot of great memories from this tournament. It's definitely very special."
Korda's best appearance at the tournament was a quarterfinal finish at last year's edition - a run at the time which kickstarted his renaissance after a tumultuous time with injury. Korda was hampered by another injury, on his wrist, towards the end of January when he was poised to go deeper than the last eight at the Australian Open.
But having fully recovered from the injury, the lanky American will look to bounce back from his shock defeat in the first round of Wimbledon to Jiri Vesely. Korda then hailed the impact of Andre Agassi, a man he calls a mentor.
Although Agassi doesn't coach Korda in any capacity officially, the 53-year-old has taken a keen interest in seeing Korda's development into a top-level player since the pandemic-hit 2020, and Korda credits Agassi for playing a major role in his rise.
"He's just a very special person to me. He's obviously kind of tennis royalty in a way and just to have someone like that in my corner, I think it's pretty special. He sees life in a different way than everyone else. He's just a very positive, outgoing person, has a massive, massive heart. He'll do absolutely anything for the people that he's close with."
"He's just a really great human being. Just the way that he sees tennis in a way is very different. He thinks about different things from other people. Kind of what he can do to get a bigger advantage in tennis."
Korda has previously admitted that Agassi provides him with regular feedback whenever he follows his matches. During his quarterfinal run at this year's Australian Open, Korda defeated Russia's world number three, Daniil Medvedev, in the third round - a match Agassi watched until the wee hours in the States.
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