National

Korda reaches boys' final at

Australian Open

Sally Milano  |  January 26, 2018
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Twenty years ago, Petr Korda captured the men's singles championship at the Australian Open. Now another Korda is on the brink of capturing a title in Melbourne of his own.

Sebastian Korda, the 17-year-old son of 1998 champion Petr, advanced to the boys' singles final at the Australian Open Friday by upsetting No. 2 seed Marko Miladinovic of Serbia, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, in the semifinals.

He will play for the championship Saturday against No. 6 seed Chun Hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei.

Korda's path to the final included straight-set wins in his first two matches against Clement Tabur of France and Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria, followed by a come-from-behind, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Philip Henning of South Africa in the third round. The No. 7 seed from Bradenton, Fla., dropped just five games total against Ray Ho of Chinese Taipei, 6-2, 6-3, in the quarterfinals, before upsetting world No. ADVERTISEMENT 2 Miladinovic in the two-hour, six-minute semifinal.

Korda is the first American to reach the Australian Open final since Stefan Kozlov finished runner-up in 2014. The last American boy to win in Melbourne was Donald Young, who took home the title in 2005.

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