It will be the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds going head-to-head for the title at the NextGen ATP Finals on Saturday night. Both Carlos Alcaraz and Sebastian Korda are 4-0 this week in Milan.
It will be quite the setting for the first-ever encounter between Carlos Alcaraz and Sebastian Korda, who project to be rivals well into the future on the ATP Tour. They are set to square off in the championship match of the NextGen ATP Finals on Sunday night in Milan, Italy.
Although this final matchup wasn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion at the beginning of the week, Alcaraz and Korda were already the two most experienced and most successful players in the field. They have certainly performed like it over the past four days, compiling a combined record of 8-0.
Alcaraz has dropped only one set while defeating Holger Rune, Brandon Nakashima, Juan Manuel Cerundolo (in four sets after he had already qualified for the semifinals), and Sebastian Baez. Korda came back from two sets down in his opener against Hugo Gaston, beat Baez and Lorenzo Musetti in straights, and then overcame Nakashima 4-3(3), 2-4, 1-4, 4-2, 4-2 on Friday.
“The final is going to be really, really tough,” Alcaraz assured. “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.”
This is a fun matchup, but the world No. 32 seems to be in a different class from everyone else in Milan–even Korda. At times against Nakashima the 21-year-old American looked less than 100 percent physically, likely making this one even more of an uphill battle.
Ricky pick: Alcaraz in 3
Cheryl pick: Alcaraz in 4
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