Alcaraz, Korda To Meet In ATP NextGen Finals

The title match at the NextGen under-22 finals in Milan is set and it will match American Sebastian Korda against Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz.

Today in the semifinals, Korda topped his countryman Brandon Nakashima 4-3(3), 2-4, 1-4, 4-2, 4-2 in the alternate short-set format. Alcaraz got past Argentina’s Sebastian Baez 4-2, 4-1, 4-2.

“It was a good match,” Korda said of the win. “I took my chances when I had them, especially on the break points, so I was really happy with how I played today. The serve was probably one of the best things tonight and I returned pretty well also. On the big points in the tie-break I played really well, so I used that momentum throughout the whole match.”

Korda and Alcaraz have never played. Both are undefeated on the week.

“The final is going to be really, really tough,” Alcaraz said. “Sebastian is playing great tennis and I am really excited to play against him for the first time. It would be amazing to win the title, but I am going to be facing a really good opponent, so we will see.”

And according to Korda, never practiced with each other.

“I’ve never practiced with him, I’ve never played him in a match. It will be really exciting,” Korda said. “Hopefully we can have a lot of battles in the next coming years; he’s playing some incredible tennis, really aggressive player and really strong mentally.”

While no official ranking points are awarded and match records/titles do not count, players do earn prize money, with the winner tomorrow taking home $400K USD.

Past winners are Hyeon Chung in 2017, Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2018 and Jannik Sinner in 2019. The event was not held in 2020.

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