Sebastian Korda shares a romantic message on his girlfriend Ivana Nedved's birthday
Sebastian Korda recently posted a romantic message on the birthday of his girlfriend Ivana Nedved.
Ivana Nedved is the daughter of legendary Czech footballer Pavel Nedved, regarded as one of the best players of his generation. Nedved won the sport's most prestigious individual award, the Ballon d'Or, in 2003.
Ivana Nedved and Korda have been dating for a while, but it's unclear when exactly they started seeing each other. She has frequently accompanied the American to his tennis matches, her first being the 2021 Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, which Korda won by defeating Marco Cecchinato in the final.
Korda took to Instagram on Saturday to wish his girlfriend a happy birthday, writing:
"Happy birthday to my gorgeous girl."
Sebastian Korda reveals how watching Novak Djokovic and his coach Radek Stepanek made him switch from ice hockey to tennis
Sebastian Korda had a fairytale run at the 2023 Australian Open, reaching the final eight of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. Karen Khachanov, however, cut his run short as the American had to withdraw midway from the quarterfinal clash due to a wrist injury.
Following that, 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.
Korda hasn't been seen in action since the Australian Open and pulled out of the Sunshine Double in his home country as he is still recovering from the aforementioned injury.