Sebastian Korda's 21st birthday was a near coming-of-age moment at Wimbledon.
Karen Khachanov played birthday buzz killer edging Korda in a tense 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 Wimbledon fourth-round win.
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Thirteen of the 18 games in the final set were service breaks as Khachanov served for the match at 5-4, 6-5 and 7-6 before finally serving out a crazy three hour, 49-minute conquest. There were 32 break points in the match, not what you might expect from a pair of 6'5" power players.
While the result showed Korda still has some work to do to strengthen his serve, it also showed how far he's come going the five-set distance for the first time and backing up his 2020 French Open fourth-round run with a round of 16 appearance in his Wimbledon debut. Korda showed perspective and positivity assessing his performance.
"I'm still super happy with how the whole tournament and today was," Korda said. "I mean, I fought my hardest. I don't know what was happening out there. We just couldn't hold serve. But, yeah, we were playing some clutch tennis when weneeded it, both of us.
"Hats off to him. He played agreat match."
Last fall, Korda managed four games against his tennis idol, Rafael Nadal, in a French Open fourth-round loss. Today, Korda, who strained a glute that seemed to limit his ability to push up on serve in the latter stages, showed the return game, groundstrokes and court sense that make him such an exciting player.
Ultimately, Korda gave himself the gift of a valuable learning experience on his 21st birthday.
"I'm incredibly happy. First time playing at Wimbledon, and made the second week here, which was incredible," Korda said. "Hopefully I can learn from the mistakes that I made today and use it for the next time I'm in the fourth round.
"Last time I was in the fourth round I didn't win a set. I played against Nadal.Today I played my first-ever five-set match. It was a whole new experience for me. I'm just learning. I mean, every tournament I'm learning new things and, yeah, it's probably the best thing I could do for myself right now."
Photo credit: Getty