American Sebastian Korda battles to milestone 100th win of career in Marseille

Fresh from a winning start to his Davis Cup season over the weekend, Sebastian Korda made a winning start to his week in Marseille on Tuesday, battling past French qualifier Hugo Grenier in his opening match at the ATP 250 indoor event, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (3).

And with that, Korda has become the first American man born in the 2000s to record 100 tour-level wins, and just the fifth man born in the 2000s from any country to reach that milestone.

MEN BORN IN 2000 OR LATER WITH 100+ WINS (tour-level):
197: Jannik Sinner, ITA [197-74]
187: Felix Auger-Aliassime, CAN [187-125]
159: Carlos Alcaraz, ESP [159-44]
101: Holger Rune, DEN [101-65]
100: Sebastian Korda, USA [100-63]

Korda and Auger-Aliassime were born in 2000, Sinner was born in 2001 and Alcaraz and Rune were born in 2003. The next player to join the above list will likely be Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, born in 2002, who currently has 96 career wins—he’s also playing in Marseille this week.

Korda is also the seventh active American man to hit 100 career wins, after Taylor Fritz (237), Steve Johnson (197), Frances Tiafoe (179), Tommy Paul (134), Donald Young (124) and Mackenzie McDonald (100).

Despite being ranked 121 spots higher than Grenier, No. 34 to No. 155, Korda has struggled against the Frenchman in the past, losing their only previous meeting on the clay of Madrid last year.

And Korda was tested again this time—from 6-3, 2-1 up he watched on as Grenier reeled off seven games in a row to completely run away with the second set, 6-2, and even go up an early break in the third set at 2-0. He eventually got the break back to tie the decider up at 4-all, and snuck out the victory after cruising through a third-set tie-break.

“He’s an unbelievable player,” Korda said of the Frenchman afterwards. “I’m glad I stuck with it, and that I got through it with a lot of energy.”

Up next for Korda in the second round will be the tournament’s No. 2 seed, Grigor Dimitrov. Korda actually won the pair’s only previous meeting, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, in the third round in Washington D.C. in 2022.