Sebastian Korda reveals how watching Novak Djokovic and his coach Radek Stepanek made him switch from ice hockey to tennis
American tennis sensation Sebastian Korda recently revealed why he switched from ice hockey to tennis following his fourth-round win at the 2023 Australian Open.
Korda earned one of the biggest wins of his career on Sunday when he overcame Hubert Hurkacz, the 10th seed, in five grueling sets to advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals.
The 29th seed reached the last eight of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career with a back-and-forth 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(10-7) victory over the Pole. He will next face Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals.
Following that, Sebastian Korda revealed in his post-match press conference that he used to play ice hockey until he was 10 years old before starting to play tennis.
"I played ice hockey until I was 10 years old. We had a really good team. We always had like the best guys. For the year 2000, we were the No. 1 in the U.S. We had a couple players on our team that got drafted into the NHL," Korda said.
He added that his trip to the 2009 US Open, where his current head coach Radek Stepanek played Novak Djokovic at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the fourth round, inspired him to switch from ice hockey to tennis and made him fall in love with the sport. At the time, Stepanek was coached by Korda's father Petr Korda, a former Australian Open champion.
"I switched over because I went to the US Open in 2009 with my dad and Radek. He made round of 16 I think it was. He played Novak on Arthur Ashe 10:30 at night, completely packed," Sebastian Korda said.
"I went back the next day and I said, This is what I want to do. I fell in love with the energy of the crowd, the way the sport is played, how mental it is. Yeah, just the rest is history," he added.
"I think I'm really good at learning from my mistakes" - Sebastian Korda
Sebastian Korda went on to remark that he is good at learning from his mistakes and moving forward, which helps him in tough matches like the one he had on Sunday.
"I think I'm really good at just kind of moving forward, learning from my mistakes, what I've done in the past, then using them in matches like this," Korda said.
The American then stressed the lessons he learned from his matches against Rafael Nadal at the 2022 Indian Wells Masters, Novak Djokovic at the 2023 Adelaide International, and former World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev at the 2023 Australian Open, saying they have really helped him going forward.
"I think I've had a tough match with Rafa, serving for it a couple times. Match point with Djokovic. I think that really helped me, especially in the last match with Medvedev, closing out that tiebreaker. Then today as well," Korda said.
"I think all those little moments that I've gone through, kind of learning from them, staying patient, staying positive, going through the process I think have really helped me going forward," he added.