Korda among American's biggest hopes for a Grand Slam according to Macci

Sebastian Korda has been chosen as one of the Americans with possibilities in Grand Slams according to Rick Macci, former coach of Serena Williams.

Rick Macci is one of the coaches with the best reputation within the circuit, as he has trained five number one ranked tennis players, such as Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Jennifer Capriati, Maria Sharapova, and Andy Roddick.

It has been more than 20 years since the last American to lead the ATP ranking, who was on top for 13 weeks until Roger Federer took the honor and began the supremacy of the big-4, which has only been replaced by Daniil Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz. The story is similar in Grand Slams, the last ones were obtained in 2003 with Andre Agassi's Australian Open and Roddick's US Open.

For coach Rick Macci, several of the current American players have possibilities of winning a Grand Slam soon:

“The next American that I feel could win a Grand Slam is gonna be Fritz, Frances, Tommy Paul, Korda or someone new, like Shelton,” he said. “Anyone of them can win a Slam or two, no doubt about it,” Macci said.

“Obviously, Fritz is stable. Mentally, he’s locked in. Forehand, backhand, serve – he’s always gonna be there,” he said, “But I think the one with the most potential is Sebastian Korda. If I had to bet, I think the most talented of all the Americans is Sebastian Korda,” he added.

Macci also considered that the family influence that Korda has is a factor that plays in his favor, the 22-year-old tennis player is the son of former world No. 2 Petr Korda and his mother Regina Rajchrtova reached the top 30:

“Tremendous pedigree. Both his mom and dad played on the pro tour,” Serena Williams’ former coach remarked.“I love his backhand. His serve’s only gonna get better. Mentally, he is calm. He hits a clean forehand, like Federer. He can hit short on purpose and bring you in. And, he volleys better than any of them. So, at the end of the day, he’s more complete,” Macci observed.

Sebastian Korda played this week at the Rome Open as the 22nd seed but fell in the second round against Russian Roman Safiulin.