ASTANA, October 2, 2023
Sebastian Korda from the United States and French veteran Adrian Mannarino will compete in Tuesday’s singles final of the Astana Open, an ATP 250 hard-court tournament held at the National Tennis Center of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation.
Korda battled past Serbian wild card entry Hamad Medjedovic 6-7(8), 7-6(2), 7-6(3) in the stage of the last four on Monday. In a match without any breaks, which was dominated by the serves of both players, Korda fired 18 aces and won 52 per cent of the total points played. The World No. 28 was the more solid player towards the end and prevailed after two hours and 52 minutes.
Super Solid Seb! 🪨
A match decided on three tiebreaks goes the way of Korda 6-7(8), 7-6(2), 7-6(3) to reach the final in Astana!@ktf_kz | #AstanaOpen pic.twitter.com/tapKHi7PSM
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 2, 2023
“Patience and believe were the two main things today,” said Korda during his post-match press conference. “I am not sure if I have ever played a match with zero breaks. It’s a pretty cool statistic and for sure I will gain some experience from it. Next time playing a match like this, I will try to relax and do the same things as I did today.”
Korda arrived in the capital city of Kazakhstan coming from Zhuhai, China and needed to get used to the different weather conditions in Central Asia.
“In Zhuhai it was super hot and humid. Here it is colder and kind of dry. It’s definitely tough to get used to it and I hope that I will not get sick. But it’s fun here and I am really enjoying myself. It’s my fourth time here. I played Challengers and Futures in Kazakhstan before. My last time was in 2018 when I reached my very first Challenger final. So I have great memories here,” said Korda, who revealed that he also enjoys eating Kazakh chocolate.
“It’s working maybe I will have another one tonight,” he added with a smile.
Mannarino returns to Astana Open final
Later in the afternoon, Mannarino ended the run of Austrian Sebastian Ofner. The 35-year-old capitalized on all of his four break-point chances to prevail 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 10 minutes.
Marching through to the final 👌@AdrianMannarino
defeats Ofner 6-4 6-2#AstanaOpen pic.twitter.com/nh0nbcviyz— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 2, 2023
“He broke me in the first set and from that point on I started to be very consistent during the long rallies. I was solid and maybe he was a bit tired from his match yesterday. He dropped a bit physically in the second set,” said Mannarino, who has already posted a personal best 35 tour-level wins in 2023.
“I am satisfied to be in the final but there is still one match to be played and I hope that I will feel good on the court tomorrow.
Korda is seeking his second tour-level title following his triumph on clay in Parma, Italy two years ago. Mannarino will be back in a final in Astana after finishing runner-up to John Millman here three years ago. The World No. 34 is bidding for his fourth ATP Tour career crown. They have never met before and haven’t even practiced together on the circuit.
