Sebastian Korda isn’t under pressure to match Major winning sister Nelly but wants to better his father
Sebastian Korda’s father Petr is a Grand Slam winner while his mother Regina is a former WTA professional who reached a career-high of world No 26 but his sporting family and famous name isn’t a burden for the rising star.
Korda’s sisters Jessica and Nelly are professional golfers, and he says that it is a wonderful thing that they are all doing what they love.
His sister Nelly has won one of the LPGA Tours Majors but Seb isn’t putting himself under pressure to match her efforts.
“I don’t think it creates any pressure,” Korda told a press conference.
“In the end, we’re all doing kind of what we love to do. Tennis is something that I just love doing. It doesn’t matter if it’s playing, watching, I watch tennis all day long, basically. I just really enjoy being here, really enjoy playing tennis.
“Same thing with my sisters, they love doing what they’re doing. I don’t think there’s any pressure with it.”
Korda insists that while there isn’t pressure from being the son of a Grand Slam winner, he would like to win at least two Slams to put his father in the shade.
“Obviously, I would love to be better than my dad,” Korda said.
“My ultimate goal in tennis is to win two Grand Slams, one more than my dad. That’s just, you know, little things like that, but I don’t think there’s any pressure. I just really love playing tennis, and just really having a lot of fun right now.”
Korda missed a big chunk of the 2023 season with an injury that he revealed he carried into the campaign from last year.
“Yeah, my injury actually started last year, probably like around this time,” Korda said.
“I was battling with a wrist, then it was okay, then it got progressively worse during the training block right before the Australian Open.
“I played in Adelaide, it was okay. As I started playing best-of-five, a lot of matches, against a lot of really big servers, especially going to the forehand, yeah, it was difficult, it started hurting a lot.
“Then, it was just a super long journey from there. I was out for three months, and just had to re-learn, basically, all the tennis stuff that I did, especially with the wrist. I was, basically, every single practice, every single forehand that I hit, I was kind just praying that it would stop hurting, and it just never would.
“Now, occasionally I still have some issues. Obviously, that forehand in the tiebreaker is one of the things. I just don’t have a lot of reps, you could say, on my forehand side, on my forehand, on my forehand volleys, returning. It’s just something that will come, I just got to play a lot more matches, a lot more practices and hopefully it becomes normal again.”
READ MORE: Rafael Nadal’s ability to switch off and enjoy life heralded by young rival and protege
