"I believe he is going to be a great one" says Nadal on Sebastian Korda

The young American burst onto the wider tennis scene last year at the French Open when he reached the 4th round eventually losing to Rafael Nadal in three sets. Since then the American won his maiden title, improved dramatically and collected heavy praise from tennis heavyweights such as Navratilova and Nadal.

The duo spent some time in Washington ahead of the Citi Open where they will both play and Nadal was asked about the youngster:

“[His game has a] good physical look, good serve, good shots from the baseline. I think he's a great guy, [a] complete player. He has a lot of things to do in the next years in our sport.”

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Korda's favourite player growing up was Nadal and he named him as a reason he is playing tennis after their Roland Garros loss. Korda loved Nadal so much so that he named his cat Rafa when he was a kid. A few months back Martina Navratilova called Korda the biggest hope of American tennis in a long time and Nadal shares her assessment of his talent:

“I think I always believed since I saw him play that he is going to have the chance to be one of the best players of the world. Let's see. It’s always the same. I think he has all the things that he needs to definitely be a top guy. Of course, things are not easy and you need to keep improving. But I definitely believe, if you ask me, [that[ he [is] going to be a great one.”