It was at the Australian Open 2024 when ESPN pundit Pam Shriver named Sebastian Korda as the dark horse to win the opening Grand Slam. To be fair, she named a few other Americans too, but Korda’s name comes up more often than with the tag of a ‘Dark Horse’. Although he is yet to prove such predictions right, Sebastian Korda is once again looking in great touch and full of promises ahead of Wimbledon.
Sebastian Korda defeated Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in the Round of 16 of the Queen’s Club Championships 2024. Dimitrov was one of the favorites to win the Championships. But now that Korda beat him, fans are once again calling the American as the ‘dark horse’ to win Wimbledon this year.
But Korda has beaten the likes of Roberto Bautista Agut, Kei Nishikori, Alex de Minaur, Frances Tiafoe, Dan Evans, and Cameron Norrie on grass in the past. And most of these names have been in the top 10 of the ATP rankings at some point of their careers. So Korda’s win over Dimitrov may not be an upset after all.
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Sebastian Korda is prepping nicely for Wimbledon 2024 and could be the United States’ best chance this time to break a 21-year old Grand Slam duck! pic.twitter.com/RMgA1M4d3K
— Wide World of Tennis (@tennisfan_dkr) June 20, 2024
Perhaps, Sebastian Korda could take inspiration from compatriot and former World No.1, Andy Roddick for having more success on grass. Although Roddick never won a Wimbledon title in his career, he did make it to 3 finals of the Grand Slam in the 2000s decade and has 5 grass court titles to his name.
In his time, no American was as good as Andy Roddick on grass as he won 8 out of 10 matches on the surface on average in his career. It is a rarity for an American player to perform better on the greens than on hard courts, which they are normally comfortable in playing.
In fact, Andy Roddick’s childhood coach, Rick Macci predicted in an interview with The SportsRush recently that Sebastian Korda could have a breakout season in 2024.
Could Korda go all the way at this year’s Wimbledon? The 2024 edition could be the most wide open in many years because of Novak Djokovic being injured, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev not yet being adept to playing on it and defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz having recently suffered an early exit at Queen’s. Sebastian Korda could fancy his chances big time, if he keeps his self-belief and mental strength at a high level throughout.
