By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday January 7, 2021
Sebastian Korda opens up about his relationship with Andre Agassi and how he plans to tackle 2021.
Photo Source: AP
A breakout performance at Roland-Garros in 2020 in October and his first challenger title in November a few weeks later. Things were rolling nicely for 20-year-old American Sebastian Korda as the 2020 season came to a close.
Throw in a two-week stint with Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, and things look even better.
After his 6-4 6-4 victory over South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon on Thursday night at the Delray Beach Open, Korda, the son of former World No.2 and 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda, opened up about his much talked about trip to Las Vegas this winter to hit with the fabled Agassi.
"I spent two weeks with Andre Agassi in Vegas, with my dad and my fitness trainer,” Korda told Tennis Now. “It was a really cool experience kind of just picking at his brain, going to dinner with him and just learning from him on the court. He sees tennis in a completely different way than most people would ever even think about seeing it. It was a big honor and a big privilege for me to share the court with him and to learn from him for two weeks."
Korda says that he and the group kept their work quiet until the last day of their training block, then he couldn’t resist the urge to get a selfie with the eight-time major champ and American tennis icon.
"The last day I was like 'I gotta get a photo, this is awesome.' It was super cool,” he said. “The first day I was doing two on ones with my dad and Steffi, those are some pretty good ball-strikers. I had Andre on my side, so I was like this can't be real."
Korda, who converted three of four break points against Kwon and will face American Tommy Paul in the second round, says that he has maintained close contact with Agassi and he added that the pair talk nearly every day and have done so for some time.
"We're always talking together, I feel like we have a super good relationship, one that we've definitely built,” he said. “He called me right after the match and texted me, we've been in contact pretty much almost every single day for the past I'd say, three, four, months. He's an awesome person to have in my corner and I'm super grateful for that."
Agassi even helps mentor Korda through some of the bigger decision he makes as a rising professional, including the American’s decision to forgo qualifying at the Australian Open and instead play several challengers across Europe next month.
"I sat down with my dad and my fitness trainer, basically my whole team and Andre and we really talked about what's the best option for me and how I want to start the year, and the biggest thing for me is playing a lot of matches, so after Delray I'm going to go to Europe and play four or five challengers just to keep playing and get my body right and my mind right during these matches,” he said.
“I think if I played the Australian Open, it's one tournament basically for the whole month of January, it just didn't really make sense for me to go over, here I have more opportunities just to play and get some matches under my belt."
Three Americans Advance on First Day of Main Draw Action
Tommy Paul and Sam Querrey joined Korda in the winner's circle on Thursday in Delray Beach. Paul toppled South Korea's Ji Sum Nang 6-1, 6-4, while Querrey defeated Mackenzie McDonald 6-3, 6-4. Italy's Gianluca Mager defeated Ryan Harrison, 3-6, 6-1 6-4, while Brazil's Thiago Montiero defeated Thomaz Belluci, 6-3 7-5.