Like father, like son: Sebastian Korda follows his dad's path, wins DC Open

America’s young tennis star Sebastian Korda has revealed that winning the DC Open is the ‘best special moment’ of his career. The 24-year-old defeated Italy’s Flavio Cobolli with a score of 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 on Sunday in the final. Korda’s win was a special as his father also lifted the title in 1992. The two become the first father-son duo to lift the same competition in the ATP Tour history.

Talking after the match, Korda stated that winning the Mubadala Citi Open was one ‘special’ moment of his career, especially because his father winning the same tournament during his days."We [the Korda family] have a lot of history with this tournament,” he said. “One of my biggest goals was one day coming here and hopefully winning the tournament and putting my name up there on the stadium. This is probably the most special moment of my career so far."

In the first set, it was Cobolli who started on a front foot. He ended up winning the set with a score of 6-4 where he registered seven winners. He also converted a break point. Korda made a comeback in the second where he converted a couple of break points. The primary difference between the two was the discipline. Korda committed one double fault, seven fewer than Cobolli. The Florida-born star continued his dominance in the third set as he emerged victorious without losing a game.

He converted three out of six break points. His opponent failed to convert a single break point out of two. Korda also registered seven winners, which was five more than the Italian tennis star. He won 74 percent service points in the third set which was considerably higher than his opponent who managed to win just 33 percent points while serving. Overall, Korda committed six unforced errors in the match, 13 fewer than his opponent. He won 76 percent service points. In comparison, Cobolli won 54 percent of points while serving. It was Korda’s second ATP title in his career.