Korda Keeps Nerve To See Off Popyrin In Astana

Sebastian Korda pulled through a tense final set against Alexei Popyrin on Friday to make a winning start at the Astana Open.

The American prevailed 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-4 in a first-round clash of fine margins at the Kazakhstani ATP 250 event. Korda had led 4-2 in the deciding set of the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting before Popyrin rallied to 4-4 to set up a tense climax. It was the fifth-seeded Korda who found a second break of his Australian opponent’s serve in the 11th game, however, setting him up for a two-hour, 54-minute triumph.

Just under 3 hours! 👀

Korda battles past Popyrin 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 and will face Nuno Borges in the next round!@ktf_kz | #AstanaOpen pic.twitter.com/vardPMtwSW

— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 29, 2023

The win extended Korda’s solid form on hard courts in 2023. The 23-year-old American has earned 15 of his 19 tour-level wins on the surface, a tally that includes a championship-match run in Adelaide, semi-final appearances in Winston-Salem and Zhuhai, and a quarter-final run at the Australian Open.

Korda will meet Nuno Borges in the second round as he chases a quarter-final spot on event debut in Astana. The World No. 28 is chasing his second ATP Tour title and his first since lifting a trophy on clay in Parma in 2021.

Also on Friday, Korda’s fellow seeds Jiri Lehecka and Adrian Mannarino booked their places in the last eight in Kazakhstan.

Fourth seed Lehecka downed qualifier Egor Gerasimov 6-2, 7-6(3) to reach his sixth tour-level quarter-final of the season. The Czech saved two set points in the 12th game of the second set before dominating the tie-break to wrap an 86-minute win. He will next face #NextGenATP Serbian Hamad Medjedovic, who downed Alexander Shevchenko 6-4, 6-4 to reach his second ATP Tour quarter-final.

Mannarino beat another qualifier, Alibek Kachmazov, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. The sixth-seeded Frenchman, who reached the final in Astana in 2020, set a last-eight clash with Austrian Jurij Rodionov.

The 24-year-old Rodionov, who advanced through qualifying, upset second seed Sebastian Baez 6-2, 6-4. Rodionov won 61 per cent of his second-serve points, compared to the Argentine's 42 per cent, to reach his second tour-level quarter-final and first since June 2021 (Stuttgart).