Sebastian Korda of the United States beat Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 7-6 1-0 after the latter withdrew because of an injury in the first semifinal of the Adelaide International on Saturday. The 22-year-old Korda will take on 35-year-old Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the final on Sunday.
Korda will, however, have to improve his performance if he is to have a serious chance of winning his second career ATP title on Sunday. He would have liked to win the first set in a more convincing manner and also had the opportunities to do so.
Let’s take a look at two keys to the match:
#1. Korda served well and was the more aggressive of the two players:
Korda served with a lot of venom right from the start of the match, firing a couple of aces in the very first game. He also rushed the net quite frequently to dispatch volleys for winners and was also quick to pounce on any short ball provided by Nishioka. Korda played most of his shots deep to push Nishioka back and then moved forward to finish points.
Still, the American was a bit too reliant on his serve and forehand to win points and hardly hit any winner off his backhand. He also could not move Nishioka from side to side often enough by playing the angled shots.
#2. Korda failed to take proper advantage of Nishioka’s weaker serve:
Nishioka is not known to possess the most powerful serve on the Tour, but Korda did not return well enough to exploit that weakness of the Japanese. The American often hit his returns long or into the net to gift Nishioka a few easy points.
As a result, Korda could not break Nishioka in the first set and only managed to scrape through in the tie-break. He broke Nishioka in the first game of the second set, but the Japanese could not continue playing after that.
Korda will have to be more clinical in the final to pose a serious threat to Novak Djokovic. However, he should be fresher than his opponent on Sunday, having won his quarterfinal clash in straight sets and playing only one game in the second set of the semifinal, and that might play to his advantage.
Main Photo from Getty.
