WATCH: Sebastian Korda wins unbelievable ‘point of the year’ against Daniil Medvedev
Sebastian Korda had to produce the match of his life to best Daniil Medvedev at the Shanghai Masters and has plenty to be proud about after his maiden top five win.
Korda was patient and precise in downing second seed Medvedev 7-6(8), 6-2 at the ATP Masters 1000 event on Sunday.
In a thrilling first-set tie-break that included a string of all-court exchanges, Korda saved three set points to win, albeit with the benefit of Medvedev’s three double-faults. The 26th seed defeated the world No 3 in an outstanding one-hour, 28-minute match.
Korda would break in the second game of the second set, which left the Medvedev looking irritated and he never recovered.
“We played really good tennis from the beginning,” said Korda.
“We had some long rallies. I’m just really happy to get that first set under my belt and then it was just a matter of getting into one of his service games and hopefully taking it home after.”
After a dramatic first set in which neither player earned a break point, Korda had to maintain his composure to win the tie-break. That crucial tiebreak would stage one of the points of the entire 2023 campaign when Korda was defending a set point.
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Medvedev didn’t give up a great deal of free points and Korda felt that he might never break the Russian down.
“He’s so quick, it’s really tough to get anything by him, especially when you have a court this big and the balls get pretty fluffy out here so it gets a little bit slower,” said Korda.
“It was definitely one of the points of the year for me, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m just very happy with the way I played today.”
It was Korda’s second victory over Medvedev in straight sets this year; the first came at the Australian Open in January. The victory on Sunday in Shanghai was Korda’s first over a Top 5 opponent in the ATP Rankings as Medvedev was the World No 8 at the time of their meeting earlier this season.
The 23-year-old has a current season record of 24-13. He started the year by making it to the final in Adelaide and making it to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal in Melbourne, but he lost nearly three months of competition due to a wrist injury and found it difficult to stay consistent once he returned.
“It’s been a very difficult year for sure,” said Korda. “I had a long pause on my year for three months, especially when I was playing some of the best tennis of my career so far. It was difficult, but it’s a long journey and I’m happy with the way I played today. It’s definitely one of the biggest victories in my career for sure.”
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