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The title hunt of world number one Carlos Alcaraz came to a disappointing end as Sebastian Korda stunned him to make it to the fourth round following an epic clash on Sunday night.
Korda had a second-set dip, dropping five successive games, but he overcame a resurgance from the six-time Grand Slam champion to win the match 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 within two hours, 19 minutes, as per ATP's official website. The world number 36 in the rankings, Korda is the lowest-ranked player to defeat Alcaraz since world number 55 David Goffin handed the Spanish sensation a shocking first-round exit in Miami last year. After a marvellous start to the season with 16 successive wins, Alcaraz is in the midst of a brief slump, having lost two of his past three games, including the Indian Wells semifinal against Daniil Medvedev. "I took the scenic route, that is for sure," Korda said as quoted by ATP's official website. "There was a little more stress than I would want, but I am happy with how I played, happy with how I stayed with it. I kept believing. I got myself in some nasty situations, but I kept going and played really well in the end," he added. Korda will be aiming to match his best result in Miami, where he made it to the quarterfinals back in 2021 and 2025 and will have to overcome 20-year-old qualifier Martin Landaluce to make it to the final eight. After missing two and a half months' worth of action due to a shin stress fracture and dropping down to world number 86, the former world number 15 and a three-time ATP tour-level titlist gave proof of how lethal he could be. Despite a comeback from Alcaraz, who largely looked clueless, Korda took the game to an exciting decider and sealed it with his clean ball striking and tactical abilities. Speaking after his win, Korda said that he had to do a "lot of soul searching" that led to him becoming just the sixth American man to defeat a world number one since 2015. "I have gone through a lot of things. I have played a lot of great players, but have not always been able to get it done. I felt that when I was playing these top players, I was just spraying the ball and trying to do too much. I sat down with Ryan (a part of his coaching set-up), and our goal today was to play average, to not try and do too much with it," he said. Alcaraz leaves Miami with a 17-2 record this season and has become the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam at the age of 22 by beating Serbian icon Novak Djokovic to capture his first-ever Australian Open crown. (ANI)
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