Can you believe it? American Sebastian Korda has eliminated Daniil Medvedev (Russia) last night after he got away with the upset win in straight sets here at Rod Laver Arena – 7-6 (9-7 tie), 6-3, 7-6 (7-4 tie).
Looks like we won’t be seeing both last year’s finalists battling for this grand slam prize again for 2023; one is defending champ Rafa Nadal after 2R when he had experienced some strain before he was eliminated by Mackenzie McDonald (USA), and another is Medvedev where he couldn’t get on hold of Korda all along from start to finish.
Medvedev didn’t have a great start but it took a while for him to get the ball rolling – such as a couple of games being fought back that gave him the chance to redeem himself via these tiebreaks (1st & 3rd set).
Sadly, he just wasn’t consistent that not only saw Medvedev easily lost the 2nd set but also couldn’t find the execution needed to get on top of Korda or at least restart a 2nd half comeback.
Meanwhile, how good was Korda where he showed so much courage & strength that helped him upset one of the elite grand slam players right now. That strong start being followed up by an opening set tiebreak win allowed Korda to take advantage with an easy 2nd stage, as all he had to do it close this 3R tie in straight sets.
He was closer to losing the 3rd set at one stage to Medvedev at 5-6, but again he never gave up by putting it into a another tiebreak & here it is – Korda has found the finish line first ahead of his 4R meeting with 10th seed Hubert Hurkacz from Poland tomorrow. Sensational stuff as he looks to follow his father’s footsteps in Petr by winning a grand slam here, having seen him done so back in 1998.
