Sebastian Korda saved a match point to beat Hugo Gaston 3-4 (2-7) 3-4 (6-8) 4-0 4-3 (7-3) 4-0 in 2 hours and 3 minutes to move to 1-0 in Group B.
Korda hit 39 winners to 15 unforced errors. He converted 5 of his 18 break points and hit 10 aces.
Korda converted his fourth break point in the first game of the opening set and held serve to take a 2-0 lead. Gaston broke back in the fourth game to draw level to 2-2. Korda saved a break point to hold serve on the deciding point for 3-3. Gaston earned two mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-2.
Gaston saved three break points to hold serve on the deciding point in the second game of the second set. The Frenchman earned two set points at 6-4 in the tie-break. Korda broke back to draw level to 6-6. Gaston sealed the second set 8-6 on his third opportunity.
Korda broke twice to win the third set 4-0. In the fourth setGaston earned a match point on Korda’s serve at 3-2, but the US player saved it with an ace on the deciding point to take the set to the tie-break. Korda came back from 1-3 down to win the tie-break 7-3 with three mini-breaks.
Korda broke serve with a drop shot in the second game of the fifth game and held serve at love to take a 3-0 lead. The US player came back from 0-30 down to break serve on his first match point in the fourth game.
Korda becomes the second player in tournament history to come back from two sets down at the Next Gen ATP Finals, joining Borna Coric, who achieved this feat against Karen Khachanov in a round-robin match in 2017.
“I just stayed calm and kept thinking what I could do better. I played very well tactically in the first two sets, but I figured a couple of things out during the tie-break and I think that helped me for the rest of the match”, said Korda.
