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Having been coached by Sebastian Korda's father Petr in the past, the American's current coach - Radek Stepanek - is confident that he has the Korda "DNA" in him and will try to inject the same into the World No. 31.
Stepanek, a former World No. 8 in singles, is currently coaching the rising American star on the ATP Tour, a stint that has gotten off on the right foot. Interestingly, the Czech was coached by former Australian Open champion Petr Korda for the longest time in his illustrious career, during which he won the Davis Cup twice and two Grand Slam doubles titles.
Speaking in a recent interview, Stepanek revealed that he learned everything he knew about the sport from the 1998 Australian Open champion and was teaching the young Korda the same.
"It's a beautiful circle of life that after Petr coached me for so long I'm now in Sebi's camp. It helped me a lot that I have Petr's DNA as a tennis player so I think he can sleep peacefully, I'm not going to inject anything other than what I've learned from him.
"Little tweaks here and there but basically I have that DNA too. Sebi was always a younger brother to me so it's a beautiful thing in life," said the Czech, as quoted by Reuters.
Stepanek has helped guide the 22-year-old into the last eight of the ongoing Australian Open, his maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal, which he felt was the result of the American handling himself well in pressure situations.
"I believe you'll see compared to last year changes in how Sebi is handling himself on the tennis court. I think that's the biggest improvement he's made and he's getting early results," said Stepanek.
"I switched over because I went to the US Open in 2009 with my dad and Radek" - Sebastian Korda
Sebastian Korda, who used to play ice hockey growing up, recently revealed that he switched to tennis after watching his current coach Radek Stepanek's match against Novak Djokovic at the 2009 US Open.
In his post-match press conference after his fourth-round win at the Australian Open, Sebastian Korda recalled how he fell in love with the energy of the crowd, which inspired him to switch over.
"I switched over because I went to the US Open in 2009 with my dad and Radek. He made the round of 16 I think it was. He played Novak on Arthur Ashe 10:30 at night, completely packed.
"I went back the next day and I said, This is what I want to do. I fell in love with the energy of the crowd, the way the sport is played, how mental it is. Yeah, just the rest is history," he said.
