‘A lot of joy inside,’ for Sebastian Korda as he stuns Diego Schwartzman at the Miami Open

ATP Tour
Sebastian Korda pleased

Rising star Sebastian Korda earned his maiden win over a top 10 player on Tuesday as he stunned fifth seed Diego Schwartzman to reach the Miami Open quarter-final.

After beating 10th seed Fabio Fognini and the in-form Aslan Karatsev in the previous rounds, the American followed it up with an excellent 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win over the fifth-seed in two hours and 36 minutes.

The 20-year-old raced into 3-0 lead after breaking in game one and eventually served out the first set. Schwartzman broke in game four of the second set, but Korda hit back in game seven only for the Argentine to get a decisive break in game 10.

Korda was in the ascendency early in the decider as he broke in game one, but Schwartzman drew level in game 10 before the Next Gen star to hit back immediately.

“He made it tough. In that first set I served super hot, but he didn’t serve that well,” Korda said. “But then he picked it up and he was just fighting and he was playing some really good tennis after that, and then the third set was just a battle.

“I played an incredible match today. I think mentally I was great out there. I stayed calm. Even when in the tight situations I believed in myself and I went for it. I’m super proud of that. Yeah, just a lot of joy inside. All the hard work that I have done with my team is paying off.”

Up next is fourth seed Andrey Rublev after the Russian comfortably saw off former US Open winner Marin Cilic with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

The winner of that contest will face either second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or Hubert Hurkacz in the semi-final after the former beat Lorenzo Sonego 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) while Hurkacz was a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4) winner over Milos Raonic.

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Diego Schwartzman Sebastian Korda

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