Sebastian Korda isn’t ready to end his first trip to Greece just yet.
Despite losing his opening set of the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Hellenic Championship against Alexei Popyrin on Sunday night, the American rallied 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“It was up and down, but overall I think I improved my level in the second set,” Korda said. “He served great. In the first set he had eight aces, so I just tried to bring it back into the court and take my chances whenever I could. But [it is] It’s always very difficult with him, he has an incredible serve and is very aggressive.”
It was the pair’s second Lexus ATPHead2Head meeting in the past month, with Korda also beating Popyrin in three sets in Stockholm. In Athens, Korda defended his second serve much better than his opponent, winning 66 percent of those points, compared to 45 percent for Popyrin according to Infosys ATP Stats.
The 25-year-old hopes to continue the good times in a city he has enjoyed.
“It was great to kind of walk around, enjoy the wonderful food they have here and just really enjoy it,” Korda said.
In other action, Alejandro Tabilo put on an interesting match against top seed Novak Djokovic with a 706(7), 6-7(6), 7-5 victory against Adam Walton in three hours and three minutes. Tabilo leads Djokovic 2-0 in their rivalry.
“It’s amazing. I went there yesterday and it’s huge,” Tabilo said of center court in Athens, where he is likely to face the Serb. “Fortunately I have now played at the US Open in Arthur Ashe [Stadium]feel a bit of that atmosphere. I’m just really looking forward to playing, even with Djokovic there it’s just going to be crazy.”
Sixth seed Nuno Borges also advanced with a 7-6(4), 6-3 victory against Greek wildcard Stefanos Sakellaridis.
Cazaux and Gaston advance in Metz
Four Frenchmen were in action on Sunday at the Moselle Open in Metz, where Arthur Cazaux and Hugo Gaston advanced to the second round.
Cazaux eliminated the tricky left-hander Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 7-6(4) and Gaston eliminated Terence Atmane 6-4, 6-1.
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