WASHINGTON – Sebastian Korda completed a father-son double on Sunday at the Mubadala City DC Open to claim his second ATP Tour title.
Thirty-two years after his father Peter won the Sovran Bank Classic in 1992, fourth-seeded Korda beat 10th-seeded Flavio Cobolli of Italy 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 in a match initially delayed by rain.
They are the first father and son to win the same ATP tournament.
“We have a long history with this tournament,” Korda said during the trophy presentation ceremony. “Obviously one of my biggest goals was to come here one day and hopefully win the tournament and have my name up there in the stadium. Now that I have the opportunity, this is probably the most special moment of my career so far.”
Korda noted that he has been coming to the Washington tournament since he was a teenager, and that his father coached Radek Stepanek, who won the tournament in 2011 and is now Sebastian’s coach.
Korda is 6 feet 5 inches tall, a right-handed player, and the younger brother of golf stars Nelly and Jessica Korda. His mother, Regina Rajkhortova, was a player on the WTA Tour.
“Proud is an understatement,” Jessica Korda said in a retweet of a video of her brother lifting the trophy.
Korda is the first American to win the Washington tournament since Andy Roddick in 2007. Korda’s previous win on the tour came in May 2021 at the Emilia Romagna Open, an ATP 250 tournament.
Korda is one of a group of American men looking to end the country’s 21-year absence from the Grand Slams since Roddick won the US Open in 2003. Korda said there is a “healthy jealousy” among them.
“When a player has a great result, other players want to do better. It’s great that all the American players are close to each other. All the American players are playing great tennis now. Hopefully we can make a big step forward in the next Grand Slam tournament soon,” he said.
Korda will jump to No. 18, a career-high, on Monday when the new rankings are released.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
