#NextGenATP Sebastian Korda capped off a great week at the Emilia-Romagna Open with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over home favourite Marco Cecchinato on Saturday to win his first ATP Tour trophy.
With the victory, Korda became the first American since Sam Querrey in 2010 Belgrade (d. Isner) to lift a trophy on European clay.
The son of former World No. 2 Petr Korda, Sebastian’s win also makes the Kordas the third father-son duo to win tour-level singles titles in the Open Era. They join Ramanathan Krishnan and Ramesh Krishnan, and Phil Dent and Taylor Dent on the short list.
The 20-year-old had never won back-to-back main draw matches on clay before arriving in Parma. But Korda quickly found his footing on his favourite surface with wins over Andreas Seppi, top seed Lorenzo Sonego, eighth seed Yoshihito Nishioka and countryman Tommy Paul without dropping a set.
Contesting the second ATP Tour final of his career – and his first on clay courts – Korda showed no signs of nerves against Cecchinato. He faced only one break point in the match, coming late in the second set as the Italian rallied his home crowd, but he responded with confident first serves to see off the challenge.
Korda won 82 per cent of points behind his first serve (31/38) across one hour and 15 minutes against the Italian. He converted three of the six break opportunities he created, including the decisive break at 5-4 on Cecchinato’s serve to clinch the title.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2R3MBeR
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