Korda eases past Herbert in Estoril

Sebastian Korda rectified an early exit in Barcelona with a strong debut in Estoril taking down Pierre Heber 6-2 6-4.

The American is the only played except Rafael Nadal who defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the past two months. Korda took him down in a strong showing in Monte-Carlo but he failed to live up to that win in Barcelona crashing out to Carlos Taberner. He looked much better today against Herbert as that match was an anomaly.

Herbert is not the singles player he once was as he mainly focuses on doubles now but his serve and volley style generally never worked on clay. He tried it today against Korda as well but after getting used to it at the start of the match, Korda was able to find solutions rather quickly. He broke Herber midway through the set taking a 4-2 lead and then finishing it off with 6-2.

The 2nd set featured similar play by both as Herber continued to play his game and Korda was able to find solutions for it. The American was rather strong on his own serve as well hitting it at a decent clip. One break is all he needed in the 2nd set to finish it off with 6-4.