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Start Well, End Well: Zverev Ends Cecchinato’s Run In Paris

  • Posted: Oct 02, 2020

Either side of a competitive second set, Alexander Zverev made quick progress on Friday to eliminate 2018 semi-finalist Marco Cecchinato 6-1, 7-5, 6-3 at Roland Garros.

The 23-year-old won 85 per cent of first-serve points (40/47) and broke serve on six occasions to reach the fourth round in Paris for the third straight year. With his third-round win, Zverev improves to 15-7 at tour-level this year.

The key moment of the match came in the second set on Court Suzanne-Lenglen. Zverev trailed Cecchinato 3-5, but reeled off four straight games to establish a two-set advantage. The German played with aggression on his backhand and moved up to the net well to turn the tables on his opponent and move one set from victory.

Zverev’s second-set escape could prove crucial to his title hopes at Stade Roland Garros. Just two days ago, the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals champion was forced to five sets by Pierre-Hugues Herbert in a match lasting almost four hours. En route to the quarter-finals at this event in 2018 and 2019, Zverev had to survive a combined five five-set matches.

“I am definitely much happier with my game [than against Herbert]. I worked on a few things yesterday. I was very unsatisfied with myself two days ago, but I still won,” said Zverev on court. “So that was more important. I know that with every round I have to play better and better, otherwise I will not have a chance.”

Zverev is aiming to capture his first Grand Slam title in Paris. The World No. 7 is enjoying his most successful year at major championships, having earned his best results at both the Australian Open and the US Open this season.

Zverev advanced to his first major semi-final in Melbourne at the start of the year and finished as runner-up at the US Open earlier this month, with both losses coming at the hands of World No. 3 Dominic Thiem. The 6’6” right-hander owns a 14-2 in Grand Slam matches this year.

Cecchinato entered the contest in fine form, having dropped just one set in five matches from qualifying to reach the third round. In the first round, the Italian upset 25th seed Alex de Minaur in straight sets and backed up the win with a four-set victory against Juan Ignacio Londero of Argentina.

Zverev will need to beat reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion Jannik Sinner if he is to reach his third straight quarter-final in the French capital. Sinner booked a spot in the fourth round at a Grand Slam event for the first time with a 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 victory against Federico Coria.

The Italian struck 44 winners to complete a run of three consecutive match wins for the first time since his title run in Milan last November. Zverev and Sinner will be meeting for the first time at tour-level on Sunday.

“[Sinner] is playing incredible. I don’t think he lost a set yet, so he is somebody that is definitely coming up and playing really well right now,” said Zverev. “[He is] somebody who has a lot of power. We will see how the match goes, but I feel like I am playing better and maybe I have a little more experience. But the young guys, they have no fear, no reason to be nervous, so it can go both ways.”

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Thiem Powers Past Ruud Under Roof At Roland Garros

  • Posted: Oct 02, 2020

Dominic Thiem extended his winning streak to 10 matches on Friday with an often grueling 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 28 seed Casper Ruud of Norway at Roland Garros.

Third seed Thiem, who captured his first Grand Slam championship title at the US Open (d. Zverev) earlier this month, was forced to recover from 1-3 down in the first set against in-form Ruud for victory in two hours and 15 minutes.

“I’m very happy and it was a great match,” said Thiem, in an on-court interview with Cedric Pioline. “I didn’t make many mistakes, it was a very good match. Casper is a very good player and we had some nice rallies. He has a lot of confidence after semi-final runs in Rome and Hamburg, and has a very good attitude from beginning to the end. I didn’t want to give him any chances in the third set.”

Thiem, who has a 19-5 record in 2020 after reaching the fourth round for the fifth consecutive year, will now prepare to challenge 2015 champion and No. 16 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland or French wild card Hugo Gaston.

“Basically I feel fine,” said Thiem. “Of course I [have] started to feel all the last weeks physically, also emotionally. I really love this tournament, and I would love to go deep [and] play well. I will do everything [for] a good recovery. Today, I had an early match. That is good, so I think I’m going to have more than 48 hours to rest. So [I will] try to [get an] easy, but good practice in tomorrow and [have] two good treatments with my physio. [Some] good food, good sleep. Then, [I will] put everything I have into the match on Sunday.”

Thiem, who saved break points in each of his first four service games, fought his way back into the first set by targeting Ruud’s backhand under a closed roof on the new Court Philippe-Chatrier. While the Austrian couldn’t convert a set point on Ruud’s serve at 5-4, in the next game Thiem struck five consecutive forehands to clinch the 58-minute opener.

“I started well and broke him,” said Ruud. “I guess he didn’t play his best or didn’t find his rhythm in the beginning of the match. So even though you’re up 3-1 in the first set, it doesn’t mean that it will go your way. And I got that, [‘m] not going to say a lesson, but I got that reminder today. He broke me right back and then I had some chances to break him back again. But he played some clutch shots on the clutch points and he showed how good a clay-court player he is and [much of a] fighter he is. It was a tough first set. It was a long first set. It was tough losing it.”

Ruud recovered from 0/40 in the first game of the second set, but Thiem’s persistence reaped dividends on his fifth break point opportunity. Ruud came close to drawing level at 2-2, but on two occasions unforced errors cost the 21-year-old on break points. He could only applaud at 3-5, when Thiem, standing just inside the baseline, struck a half volley backhand winner down the line to clinch a two sets lead.

Thiem’s greater weight of shot proved to be Ruud’s undoing in the third set, when the World No. 3 broke in the fourth game, through sheer consistency. From 1-1, he ran through the final five games, finishing with a second serve ace. Thiem hit 32 winners, including five aces, and converted six of his 15 break point chances in front of almost 1,000 spectators on the main show court.

World No. 25 Ruud, who lifted his first ATP Tour title in February at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires (d. P. Sousa), is now 22-10 on the season. He recently reached the semi-finals at both the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (l. to Djokovic) and at last week’s Hamburg European Open (l. to Rublev).

“It was another great experience for me to play here on the center court for the first time in my career,” said Ruud. “Hopefully, I will play more times on the Court Chatrier, and [I will] hopefully get some wins on it. It’s been a very good clay-court swing for me this year.”

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Keeping Up With The Kordas… Sporting Success Par For The Course

  • Posted: Oct 02, 2020

When #NextGenATP American Sebastian Korda walks on Court 7 on Friday afternoon at Roland Garros for his third-round match against Pedro Martinez, his two biggest fans — sisters Jessica, 27 and Nelly, 22 — will be glued to their computer screens an ocean away in the United States.

The Korda Sisters, who are professional golfers on the LPGA Tour, are competing in a tournament this week in New Jersey. But that hasn’t stopped them from waking up as early as 5 a.m. to watch their 20-year-old brother play in Paris.

“The hardest part of all of this is we can’t be there,” Jessica said. “He can’t feel our excitement of points being won or hear our encouragement when we’re screaming at the TV or screaming at our computers.”

Jessica and Nelly believe it’s harder for them to watch their brother compete than it is to play themselves because they can’t control the outcome.

“When we go out and play it’s in our own hands,” Jessica said. “When we watch, we’re just watching and we want to be there. We want to support and we want to encourage him. But we can’t because we’re watching through a screen as well. It’s hard for sure.”

Korda Family
The Korda siblings cherish their time together. Photo Credit: Korda Family
Sebastian, who is ‘Seb’ to his sisters and generally nicknamed ‘Sebi’, played his first two main draw matches first on his court on the schedule. But even though his sisters can’t physically be at his tournaments a large majority of the time because they are professional athletes, they are with him in spirit. Even if that has meant early-morning alarms.

“He’ll definitely come back to a lot of texts,” Nelly said. “No matter what, we’re usually the first ones to text him, even if it’s a bad day or if it’s a good day. Same with him for us.”

The World No. 213 began the week without a tour-level victory. But he has proven himself a strong competitor by qualifying for the main draw and reaching the third round. While no member of the family, especially Sebi, is focussing on anyone but Pedro Martinez, he could potentially face one of his idols in the fourth round: Rafael Nadal. To put in perspective how much Nadal means to Sebi, they have a cat named Rafa.

“Honestly I think he would be so excited on court,” Nelly said.

“He’d have the biggest smile on his face,” Jessica said. “For someone who doesn’t show a whole lot of emotion, I guarantee he’d have a smile on his face.”

Nelly added: “Or just before he would just be freaking out and be like, ‘Oh my God, this is so cool!’”

Jessica said: “As it would start he would be very intense and then after be like, ‘That was the coolest thing ever!’”

Korda has a fun side, too. After upsetting 21st seed John Isner in the second round, he made a swimming motion towards his team. Korda later posted on social media that he bet his team they would have to swim the length of the Charles Bridge in Prague if he qualified and made it to the third round.

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Sebastian Korda defeated John Isner in the second round at Roland Garros. Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
“Once you get to know Seb, he is such a goofball,” Nelly said. “I would say Jess is the most outgoing of us three and Seb’s definitely the biggest goofball.”

“There were so many times when I would come home to a video or even times when I was in Bradenton visiting everyone that after tennis he wouldn’t take any of his clothes off, nothing. He would just walk straight into the back and just walk into the pool,” Jessica remembered. “Didn’t look left or right, he just fell into the water with all of his clothes on.

“Every single thing that he does is just so silly. He just makes it so much fun. When I was trying to skip rope and I was trying to do the double jumps, I was so proud of myself because I did eight or nine in a row and Seb sends me a video with like 100 of them and he’s like, ‘Beat that!’”

One of the toughest dilemmas for the Korda siblings is that because they are all professional athletes, they don’t often see each other. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, they were able to spend more time together. Nelly and Sebi live nearby, making it easier for them. Although Jessica lives on the opposite side of Florida, they still found time to visit each other.

“It’s awesome,” Sebi said. “We’re always in contact and we’re always talking about what we can do better and how we’re doing. They’re a big help and I love them a lot.

“This year in quarantine I saw my sister Nelly a lot and I saw my other sister, Jessica, a good amount as well. So it was nice to have everybody at home and [especially] because we don’t spend a lot of time together.”

Jessica and Nelly are two of the best golfers in the world, but Sebi was proud to tell the media that he beat one of them when they were younger.

“My only claim to fame is the only tournament I ever played I won and I beat [Nelly] when I was like 11 years old,” Sebi said. “[She] will never live that one down.”

“He beat me in one tournament we played… in Prague, Czech Republic when we were really young,” said Nelly, currently World No. 2. “But in terms of creativity and pulling off shots, he beats me by a mile. He is super talented when it comes to being creative and pulling off 60-yard hooks and landing it on the green, it’s crazy.”

“He’s definitely the most athletic Korda,” Jessica added. “I would say he’s more athletic than my dad as well.”

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Sebastian Korda pays tribute to the scissor kick popularised by his father, Petr Korda. Photo Credit: Peter Staples/ATP Tour
Their father is former World No. 2 Petr Korda, the 1998 Australian Open champion. Ironically, the Korda sisters both won the women’s golf Australian Open and Sebi triumphed in the Melbourne boys’ singles draw. But they all value their personal relationships over their athletic accolades.

“Our family has a very close connection and close ties. Their time is very precious when they’re together, so we let them be kids. [Even though they’re professional athletes], they still will be our kids,” Petr said. “They have daily conversations between them. If one of them isn’t doing well, they try to support each other. It’s an effort from all corners.”

Many people ask Sebi and his sisters about the pressure of being Petr Korda’s child. But they also note that their mother, Regina Kordova, was a professional tennis player who reached a carer-high World No. 26. The Korda siblings simply focus on carving their own path. And above all, they stick together and support one another through their good times and bad.

“He’s making his own way in life and in tennis and unfortunately he’s always going to be compared to what our dad accomplished, mom being ranked really high as well,” Nelly said. “He’ll make his own way and it’ll be one step at a time, but we’ll always be there cheering him on.”

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