De Minaur knocked out of Wimbledon by one half of a US sporting dynasty

Australian star Alex de Minaur was on the losing end of an American sporting dynasty in the making as his Wimbledon campaign was cut abruptly short by Sebastian Korda.

Alex de Minaur of Australia stretches out against Sebastian Korda at Wimbledon. Picture: Getty Images

It’s been a huge week for the Korda family, and unfortunately for Australian star Alex de Minaur, he happened to be on the losing end of an American sporting dynasty in the making.

On Tuesday de Minaur had his promising Wimbledon campaign cut abruptly short, after lanky American Sebastian Korda scored a titanic four-set first-round victory, 6-3 6-4 6-7 7-6.

It was one of those incredibly tight matches that mere millimetres in the gruelling high class rallies counted for most points and the winner appears destined to go far in the Championship.

This time it wouldn’t be the dynamo de Minaur, fresh off his fifth ATP Tour victory at Eastbourne last week which should have secured him a comfortable seeing for the early Wimbledon rounds.

Certainly there was no luck of the draw for de Minaur in drawing Korda, the son of tennis stars, the 1988 Australian Open winner Petr Korda and the Czech Olympian Regina Rajchrtova.

Korda, just 20, is on a roll, rocketing up the mens rankings and nothing inspired him more than his older sister, Nelly Korda, 22, who became the world number one women’s golfer with a big win, off the back of a pair of eagles and a scorecard of 19 under in the women’s PGA Championship on Sunday.

Nelly has revealed that her brother is the one who likes to “pump up’’ the rest of the family, and he was thrilled at her victory. Indeed there may have been some sibling rivalry to spark to his own efforts against de Minaur, firing in some spectacular aces and pushing the Australian to the edges of the court during their many long baseline rallies.

Korda, who won the 2018 Australian boys open title, has come into his own in the past 12 months. At the end of May he was unbeaten at the Emilia-Romagna Open challenge tournament on clay and he has spent the last few weeks finetuning his grass game with his father, who doubles as his coach.

Stosur knocked out in first round

Evergreen Australian Sam Stosur bowed out of Wimbledon, losing to American Shelby Rogers in her 17th Wimbledon campaign, 6-1 5-7 6-3.

Stosur, the 37 year old veteran, and new mother of one year old Genevieve, was considered the outsider in the match, ranked 166th on the women’s rankings, but she scared the younger American with a valiant fight back to take the near hour-long second set.

Stosur was hoping to mark her selection in the Australian Olympic team with a Wimbledon appearance deep into the first week and beyond her usual first or second round loss, but a lack of match finesse told in the astounding number of unforced errors — double that of her opponent.

Stosur will be hoping to turn that statistic around when she will be the first Australian tennis player to notch up five consecutive Olympic Games appearances when she heads to Tokyo in a couple of weeks.

This month Stosur also celebrated the first birthday of her daughter Genevieve, born to her partner Liz Astling during the pandemic last year.

Sam Stosur plays a backhand during her first-round loss to American Shelby Rogers. Picture: Getty Images

But on Tuesday Stosur was unable to counter Rogers’ big serve and sharp backhands which left her out of position on the court during crucial moments of the seesawing match.

Rogers ripped through the first set 6-1 in 21 minutes, bringing back uncomfortable memories of this year’s Australian Open when Stosur was bundled out in the second round in straight sets 6-0 6-1 to American Jessica Pegula.

But midway through the second set, Stosur became more comfortable on court 16 – and its distractions of being directly adjacent to the main spectator thoroughfare – and fought back to save three crucial match points in the second set.

Stosur sensed that 28-year-old Rogers, the powerful hitting who also prefers the harder court surfaces, was tiring and then took next two games with some powerful crosscourt shots to win the set 7-5.

But it was Rogers who pushed an increasingly frustrated Stosur into more mistakes in the third, breaking her serve midway in the set, to take the match.