The Winston-Salem Open has awarded the third of its four main draw singles wild cards to American Sebastian Korda, who will make his debut appearance.
The Floridian currently sits at no. 30 in the World in the Pepperstone ATP rankings, just five spots below his career high from earlier this summer.
Korda made his first quarterfinal at a major at the 2023 Australian Open when he defeated then World No. 8 Daniil Medvedev.
In 2021, he came through the Roland Garros qualifying and reached the fourth round. At Wimbledon the following year, he again reached the round of 16, making him only the third player in the Open Era to reach this benchmark in a debut at both events.
“Sebi’s talent is more than obvious,” says Winston-Salem Open Tournament Director Jeff Ryan.
“It’s exciting for our community to host this fantastic player for the first time. We are thrilled the Team Korda will get to experience our fans, this beautiful site, as well as our community. We are confident this will be excellent preparation for him to make another deep run at a major – this time in New York.”
The Korda name is familiar in sports. Petr Korda, Sebastian’s father, earned a career-high ranking of No. 2 on the ATP, and his mother, Regina, reached No. 26 on the WTA. His eldest sister, Jessica, peaked at World No. 8 on the LPGA, and middle sister Nelly has reached World No. 1.
Korda will enter the Winston-Salem Open as the likely no. 2 seed at the event, just behind Borna Coric (CRO). The defending champion Adrian Mannarino (FRA) will likely be seeded no. 3.
The tournament has one additional main draw singles wild card still to award.
