Korda defies rain, wrist to see off Monfils and make second quarter-final in Miami
Sebastian Korda edged out Gael Monfils 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 on Tuesday. He’ll face the winner of the match between Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the No 15 seed, and Serb Novak Djokovic, the No 4 seed, in the next round
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American Sebastian Korda reached the quarter-finals of the Miami Masters by edging out Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 at the Hard Rock Stadium on Tuesday.
With the victory, Korda becomes the youngest American man since Andy Roddick to make multiple quarter-finals at the Miami Masters, having also advanced to the last eight in 2021.
His success may have come at a cost, however, as partway through the match the No 24 seed began nursing his wrist, a problem area in the past for him. While he was able to continue and come back from dropping the second set, the 24-year-old confessed afterwards that he was in pain and unsure of how his recovery will go.
“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.
“It’s great [to be into another Masters 1000 quarter-final]. I haven’t played a lot of tournaments this year, hopefully I can play some good tennis and see where it takes me.”
Korda, ranked No 25, will play the winner of the match between Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the No 15 seed, and Serb Novak Djokovic, the No 4 seed, next.
The American won against wildcard Eliot Spizzirri (6-4, 6-2) and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 9 seed (7-6 (4), 6-3) ahead of his victory.
In the previous rounds of the Miami Open, Monfils, ranked No 46, defeated Hungarian Fabian Marozsan (6-3, 3-6, 6-4), No 26 seed Jiri Lehecka (6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (8)) and Spaniard Jaume Munar (7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (1)).
Miami Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 9.193.540, most recent results first):
- Alexander Zverev vs. Arthur Fils
- Taylor Fritz vs. Adam Walton
- Tomas Machac vs. Jakub Mensik
- Lorenzo Musetti vs. Novak Djokovic
- Alex De Minaur vs. Matteo Berrettini
- Francisco Cerundolo (23) beat Casper Ruud (5): 6-4, 6-2
- Grigor Dimitrov (14) beat Brandon Nakashima (31): 6-4, 7-5
