Unwavering Focus

Will Korda be sharp enough for the "Majchrzak Test"?

Korda is back, and he got off to a nice start with a straight-sets win over Kopriva in his first match! Despite a rather easy win, it was quite visible that Korda was a bit "rusty" (as expected). He even admitted so in the post-match interview:

"I was nervous, I felt all the emotions possible, but it's nice to be back in Winston-Salem. Hopefully it stays hot. I felt a little lost out there at times with my serve and ball toss, but I'm just happy with how I played overall."

Kopriva was probably one of the easier opponents he could have gotten, apart from a local WC or so. The only reason Kopriva is here is cause he beat a bad Ofner in the first round! 0 aces and 8 DFs against Korda, hard to have much success with those stats on hardcourts... Anyway, Korda gets a match under his belt at least! Hopefully, he is ready for a significant step up in level on the other side of the net, cause he will be facing Majchrzak. I have been very high on Kamil in this tournament, and so far, he has not let me down! A solid opening win against Jarry and a complete demolition of Borges in the night session in his last match. There was such a contrast in that match; Borges came out rather sluggish, while Majchrzak was laser-focused from the start to the finish. Borges simply had no answers to his intensity and no real weakness to exploit. Majchrzak's BH is great, consistently offering good depth in crosscourt rallies, a good ability and confidence to go down the line, and also for precise passing shots whenever his opponents come to the net. His forehand has been good as well, especially his ability to really hammer and flatten it out at the right moments. His serving has been solid, and he really goes after second-serve returns (successfully). As you can tell, I think he is playing quite complete tennis at the moment!

On paper, this is not a bad matchup for Korda. He tends to do well against these kinds of "solid" players since he can dominate with his heavier groundstrokes, and his serve/net skills are great assets for fast points. We know Korda has a huge ceiling, but also his low floor, perhaps even more so right now, having barely played. Majchrzak will be able to exploit dips in form in a way that Kopriva could not, and maybe it would have been better for Korda to have a tougher round one! They will be playing early, and that should be beneficial for Korda. He'll have the chance to finish points easier in faster conditions; he would have really struggled in a slow night session... Regardless, this will not be an easy task for him!