S. Korda wins Washington title 32 years after dad
WASHINGTON — Sebastian Korda completed a father-son double Sunday night in the Mubadala Citi DC Open for his second ATP Tour title.
Thirty-two years after father Petr won the then-Sovran Bank Classic in 1992, the fourth-seeded Korda beat 10th-seeded Flavio Cobolli of Italy 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 in a match delayed at the start because of rain.
They are the first father-son tandem to win the same ATP Tour event.
“We have a lot of history with this tournament,” Korda said during the trophy presentation. “Obviously, one of my biggest goals was one day coming here and hopefully winning the tournament and putting my name up there on the stadium. Now that I have the opportunity, this is probably the most special moment of my career so far.”
Korda noted he had been coming to the Washington tournament since he was a teenager, and that his father used to coach Radek Stepanek, who won the event in 2011 and is now Sebastian’s coach.
The 24-year-old Korda, a 6-foot-5 right-hander, is the younger brother of golf stars Nelly and Jessica Korda. His mother, Regina Rajchrtova, played on the WTA Tour.
“Proud is an understatement,” Jessica Korda said in a retweet of a video showing her brother lifting the trophy.
Korda is the first American to win the Washington event since Andy Roddick in 2007. Korda’s previous victory on the tour came in May 2021 in the Emilia-Romagna Open, an ATP 250 tournament.
Korda is among a group of U.S. men looking to end the country’s 21-year Grand Slam drought since Roddick won the US Open in 2003. Korda said there is “healthy jealousy” between them.
“When someone does a great result, the other guys want to do an even better one,” he said. “It’s really great that all the Americans are close. All the Americans are playing really great tennis right now. Hopefully we can make a big push in the coming Grand Slam soon.”
Korda will jump to a career-high 18th on Monday when the new ranking comes out.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
