No. 24 seed Sebastian Korda shook off a match delay and a bothersome wrist and took down Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the Round of 16 at the Miami Open on Tuesday.
Korda, a Florida native, reached the quarterfinals of his home event for the second time (also in 2021).
It was an adventure getting there. Korda picked up a wrist injury during the match but played through it. He later withdrew from the doubles event but stayed in the singles draw.
“It’s pretty painful right now. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow,” he said. “Will do a lot of work with my physio now. We’ll see how it is tomorrow.
“I got pretty negative (after the injury). Just kind of had to refocus and get positive again.”
Korda was also sidetracked when Monfils requested that the stadium’s lights be turned on early in the third set. It turned into a lengthy delay as tournament organizers had trouble getting the lights to come on.
At day’s end, Korda (ranked 25th in the world) was the better player. He won 39 of 49 first-service points (79.6 percent) and all nine of his points at the net. He also overcame 38 unforced errors.
Korda’s next opponent will be none other than Novak Djokovic. The Serbian star, seeded fourth, swept past No. 15 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 6-2, 6-2. Djokovic rallied from a 2-0 deficit at the start of the match.
“First couple games, I started a little bit slow and then I knew that if I give him time, he’s going to make his shots,” Djokovic said. “He loves kind of running around his backhand, hitting forehands. But he is so talented, he can play any shot in the game on any surface.
“It was tough, particularly in the first seven, eight games of the match. But I think breaking his serve to come back to 2-all and break right away at 3-2, it was a momentum shift, and I tried to use that.”
No. 23 seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina upset No. 5 Casper Ruud of Norway 6-4, 6-2. He’ll move on to face No. 14 Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, a 6-4, 7-5 winner over No. 31 Brandon Nakashima.
No. 3 seed Taylor Fritz ended a nice run for Australian lucky loser Adam Walton with a 6-3, 7-5 result. His quarterfinal foe is No. 29 seed Matteo Berrettini of Italy, who knocked off 10th seed Alex de Minaur of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (7).
The last match of the night was set to pit No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany against French 17th seed Arthur Fils, but after a rain delay earlier in the day, that match was postponed to Wednesday. The winner will face the Czech Republic’s Jakub Mensik, who advanced via walkover against countryman and No. 20 seed Tomas Machac.
–Field Level Media
