March Madness has finally hit the 2026 Miami Open. On Sunday evening, the 32-seed Sebastian Korda upset ATP World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in a gutsy, third-round battle: 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.<\/p>\n
Kora was asked during his on-court interview, “How did\u00a0you do it, especially after losing that\u00a0second set, to just collect yourself\u00a0again?” Korda said with a smile, “Yeah, a lot of soul-searching,\u00a0that’s for sure.” <\/p>\n
Korda had an opportunity to serve it out in the second set, but let the match slip extend into a decider. However, the 25-year-old showed incredible resilience. His secret? Playing average, according to Korda.<\/p>\n
The American continued, “I’ve\u00a0gone through a lot of things, you\u00a0know, I’ve played a lot of great\u00a0players. I haven’t really been\u00a0able to get it done, but I\u00a0felt always when I was playing these top\u00a0players that I would kind of just start\u00a0spraying the ball and try to do a little\u00a0bit too much than I really need to do.<\/p>\n
And with Ryan [Harrison], we sat down,\u00a0and our goal today was to\u00a0play average. It was\u00a0just have an average ball. Don’t try to do too much with it because\u00a0that’s when you kind of get in trouble. And that’s kind of what he’s\u00a0searching for, is you start\u00a0spraying, and then you get\u00a0yourself in trouble with against him.”<\/p>\n
When asked what his top level is, Korda explained, “Well, I mean, like the ball speed, not the way how I played, for sure. I was as aggressive as possible. I served great throughout the\u00a0whole match and, yeah,\u00a0that’s that’s kind of what you have to\u00a0do to play to beat a player like him.<\/p>\n
He’s unbelievable in\u00a0every aspect of his game. The\u00a0movement, volleys, forehand,\u00a0backhand, there’s nothing he\u00a0can’t do. So, yeah, I definitely\u00a0needed to do, I needed to be\u00a0aggressive. I needed to take the ball\u00a0out of his hand and take the point in my favor.”<\/p>\n
Today was Alcaraz’s worst loss by ranking since his early exit at last year’s Miami Open. Of course, that was a catalyst for an incredible spring and summer for the Spanish superstar.<\/p>\n