The high quality of players at this week’s $75,000 ATP Challenger—think AAA baseball for tennis— in Tallahassee, Florida was on display before the main portion of the event even began.
American Sebastian Korda, the top-ranked junior in world and son of 1998 Australian Open winner Petr Korda, lost an opening round qualifying match to a 33-year-old player ranked No. 328 in the world who moonlights as the captain of his country’s Davis Cup team.
At 17, Korda is the same age that Michael Chang and Boris Becker were when each won his first Grand Slam title. But on Saturday, Korda could only muster six games in a 6-2, 6-4 loss to Canadian Frank Dancevic.