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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday May 27, 2022

 
Carlos Alcaraz

Carlos Alcaraz extended his winning streak to 13 with a dominant win over Sebastian Korda on Friday night at Roland-Garros.

Photo Source: Getty

As the last man to defeat Carlos Alcaraz on tour, American Sebastian Korda was thought to be a formidable third-round opponent for the red-hot Spaniard on Friday night in Paris. As it turned out, Sebastian Korda was barely a speed bump.

Tennis Express

Alcaraz pushed past the 21-year-old Korda 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to earn a spot in the fourth round for the first time. He turned the tides on the American after falling to him at Monte-Carlo, 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 6-3, with aggressive, attacking tennis, stellar serving and on-point work at the net.

The 19-year-old, who became the youngest player to reach the round of 16 in Paris on the men’s side since Novak Djokovic in 2006, will face Russia’s Karen Khachanov next.

“I just practice with him just once, but I watch other matches from him, so I know that it's going to be a tough match,” Alcaraz said of Khachanov, who reached the round of 16 in Paris for the fifth time with a win over Great Britain's Cameron Norrie. “But at the same time as well he's a tough opponent and I like those matches.”

In front of a nearly full Court Philippe-Chatrier, an energized Alcaraz took the game to Korda from the beginning of the match. There was an electric atmosphere in the stadium and the support was decidedly in favor of the man who has done his best to shake up the ATP Tour in 2022.

Alcaraz rode that energy to a quick break for 2-1 in the opener and it was all he would need. He was dominant on serve, dropping just six points behind it in the 40-minute opening set.

Korda held out a bit longer in set two but again it was Alcaraz drawing first blood and making it last. The No.6 seed broke for 3-2 and dropped just four points on serve for the rest of the set to take a commanding two sets to love lead.

With Korda down and out, Korda reeled off the final four games of the third set to close out the brisk affair in two hours and six minutes.


Alcaraz improves to 31-3 on the season, thanks to an impressive night from the service stripe. He saved all five break points he faced and won 21 of 30 points behind his second serve.

He cracked 24 winners against 26 unforced errors while Korda produced 23 errors and 26 unforced. The Spaniard also won 18 of 22 points at net while Korda only managed to win 20 of his 35 net points.

It’s hard to believe Alcaraz is only making is sixth career appearance at a Grand Slam. He appears so comfortable moving through the gears on the biggest stages in the world.

But he is confident that the matches he has played over the last two season has made him a more experienced player.

“I'm still young, but I would say pretty experienced player now,” he said confidently after saving a match point to defeat Albert Ramos-Vinolas in his second round match on Wednesday. “Well, I feel comfortable playing on big stadium, big matches, playing on Grand Slam. As I said, physically I'm strong. Mentally I'm strong, as well.

“I think I'm ready to play these kind of matches in these situations, these tournaments. I'm ready, yeah.”


 

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