Third seed Carlos Alcaraz came through a high-class third-round encounter against Sebastian Korda and won the critical second set tie-breaker before completing a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory – and goes on to face the winner of Felix Auger-Aliassime or Ben Shelton for a place in the quarter-finals of Roland Garros.
In a superb show of customary high-quality shot making, mixed with sublime touch from all parts of the court, Alcaraz withstood a gutsy second set display by his American opponent and won on his first match point courtesy of his 21st drop shot of the contest.
The 21-year-old looks in superb form heading into the second week and although tougher challenges await, on this evidence he is rightly considered one of the favourites for the title.
Asked post-match about his prospects for the rest of the tournament he said, “I feel amazing, I feel great playing on this court, I have great memories of great matches which I have played before. I am feeling better and better in every match I am playing here. Once again, the crowd is amazing, every day it’s even better and amazing to play in front of you. I am excited to play in the second week in Paris and hopefully I can keep going.”
World number three Alcaraz beat Korda in straight sets at the same stage two years ago, also in a night match. Both players needed four sets to come through their previous matches with Alcaraz beating Dutch qualifier Jesper de Jong and Korda, whose sister Nelly is the best women’s golfer in the world and won six of her past seven tournaments, defeating Kwon Soon-woo from South Korea.
Alcaraz, who was still wearing the compression strapping on his right arm to protect his injured elbow which he injured in March started brilliantly by breaking serve but immediately lost the initiative and was broken straight back. Play went with serve for the rest of the set until four games all when Korda missed a forehand volley at breakpoint down and was broken. Alcaraz had only entered one clay court event prior to Roland Garros but served out to love and snatched the first set.
Alcaraz, now playing with full confidence even brought out the tweener at the start of the second set, and although he broke early to go 2-1 up, Korda stood firm on his next service game and came through tough moments while at deuce before stringing together a wonderful sequence of points to break back and level the set at 3-3 before holding off three break points to go 4-3 ahead. Both players then held until six games all.
And so, the second set would be decided by a tie-break, with the Spaniard having a 6-4 win-loss record for 2024 while Korda had won five of the eleven he had played this year. Both players traded mini-breaks before Alcaraz went 6-4 ahead for two set points. Korda saved the first by retrieving an Alcaraz smash, but was unable to do anything on the second as Alcaraz blasted another trademark forehand winner and squeezed the set 7-6 to take a commanding two sets lead.
It was the end of a brilliant set of high-quality tennis, and left the American with a mountain to climb. Korda, son of Petr Korda and former Australian Open champion, was still feeling the effects of exerting so much effort in the previous set and was quickly broken at the start of the third as Alcaraz looked to end the match as soon as possible to conserve energy. Soon after taking a 4-1 lead, he closed out the tie in two hours and 39 minutes to the delight of the centre court crowd.
Alcaraz continues to seek improvements in his game and has made adjustments on serve with the toss, step and movement. As always, he played with a smile on his face and felt he had improved since his last match. Speaking on court afterwards, he said: “It was a really good match, I think I played really well and much better than the previous match. I really want to get in the rally and play good points and get a good feeling on court, and I think I did that pretty well.”
When asked if he was worried coming into the match, he replied “not really” drawing some laughter from the crowd. He went on to explain: “Sebastian is a great player, a really good ball striker, he hits the ball really clear, it’s difficult to play against him and I had to run a lot side to side, it was like a marathon for me today, but I wasn’t worried at all, I know what I am capable off and my skills and I know it’s really difficult for him as well.”
27th seed Korda reached the fourth round of the French Open in 2020 in his first appearance in a Grand Slam, while his best Major result was making the quarters at the 2023 Australian Open. The 6ft 5in American will surely be frustrated at now losing six tournaments this year alone at the third-round stage.
Alcaraz now leads their head-to-head 4-1, with their last match on the grass courts at Queens last summer, a match which the Spaniard won on route to his first grass court title before he memorably defeated Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon Final three weeks later.
