MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

April 1, 2021

Sebastian Korda

Press Conference

A. RUBLEV/S. Korda

7-5, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Tell us how is your groin? How are you feeling? As far as, you know, what's the depth of your injury? Next steps.

SEBASTIAN KORDA: Yeah, no, thank you, I will be okay. I had the same thing in Delray Beach. Usually happens when I play a lot of matches, and it kind of either just gets sore or something's there. But, yeah, I'm going to go home and get it looked at and then we'll see from there.

Q. How much you think it had an influence in the outcome of this match, the feeling that you have, the injury that you suffered?

SEBASTIAN KORDA: Yeah, I think -- I don't know. I kind of already felt it this morning, but it wasn't anything bad and it got progressively worse. I still had a lot of chances.

After I got it, I came back and I had a couple mini breaks in the tiebreaker. And, yeah, it was just a couple points here and there I would still be out on court right now.

Q. A great run. I do want to ask you about your cat. Is Rafa still with us and thriving? And also asking about the situation with the Charles River, whether you have swum it yet, swam across it yet or not. But my serious question is I want to ask you, you have had such a fantastic rise. If you had to look back, what do you think the best decision that you made in your young years has been in terms of your career?

SEBASTIAN KORDA: I don't know. I think it was one of the best things was kind of that break that we had. It really helped me just kind of to really focus on my body, and fortunately we had a tennis court right next to our house. We were all healthy and we were all staying safe but we could still practice. That was a really big thing for me.

I just got in a lot of reps, and I think that really shows in my game right now that I'm a lot more consistent, I can keep up with these bigger guys. Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest thing things.

But I think also skipping out on Australia was also a really big thing for me, getting a lot matches. Yeah, I'm match fit. When I have a lot of matches under my belt I play some really good tennis.

The cat, he's good. He's at home probably sleeping. And, yeah, the river was a bet with my coach in the Czech Republic with my coach and my fitness trainer. After I won my third round, we went back to Prague and they swam across. I think the water was almost freezing cold, but, yeah, they did it.

Q. A great run, not only in singles but also in doubles. What are the best things that you take out of this week like moving forward into the clay season?

SEBASTIAN KORDA: I think just how I kind of feel comfortable playing against these bigger guys. I mean, this week showed me that I can keep up and play with the biggest names in tennis.

So it was a really positive week both in singles and in doubles. I had a lot of fun in doubles with my partner, Michael Mmoh. And, yeah, I will take a lot from this and hopefully I can play some good tennis on the clay now.

Q. You were talking the other day about your relationship with Andre Agassi. I wonder, your composure on court, either winning, losing, you know, feeling injured or whatever, have you worked that out with him? Because when you compare that attitude with some coming from Rublev that today he was angry and showed that on court, and you did not show that at all. Have you worked that out with Andre? Is that something that comes from you from when you were a child? Tell us a little bit about that.

SEBASTIAN KORDA: Yeah, I think ever since I was a kid my mom was really big into kind of having a poker face on court and not showing any negative emotions. Obviously positive emotions are always great, but, yeah, I think my mom was really big on that.

I have her to thank for that, because I think it's a really big strength for me that the opponent doesn't really know what's happening on the other side of the court, and, yeah, I try to use it to my favor.