Djokovic made Korda ditch hockey for tennis 14 years before Aus Open

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Sebastian Korda has revealed how Novak Djokovic made him decide to choose a career back in 2009 in tennis after starting out in ice hockey. The world No 31 has a strong connection to the Australian Open with his dad Petr winning the event back in 1998 and is enjoying his own deep run this year but the 22-year-old has now revealed that it was a Djokovic match that encouraged him to play tennis instead of his own dad’s legacy.

Korda is through to his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final as he continues his impressive Aussie summer. The American had championship point against Djokovic in the Adelaide final a couple of weeks ago before losing the match but has bounced back quickly, defeating the likes of Daniil Medvedev en route to the last eight at the Australian Open.

The 22-year-old has been winning over the fans in Melbourne with his family anecdotes as Korda himself is a junior champion at the event while his dad famously lifted the Australian Open title 25 years ago and his sisters – pro golfers Nelly and Jessica Korda – have both won the Women’s Australian Open golf event.

With his mum also a retired tennis pro, it would be easy to assume that the 29th seed’s parents are the reason he got into the sport but Korda has now revealed that he actually played professional ice hockey until he was 10 years old, when Djokovic and his now-coach Radek Stepanek changed his mind. “We had a really good team,” Korda said of his ice hockey days after beating 10th seed Hubert Hurkacz in five sets on Sunday.

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“We always had the best guys. For the year 2000, we were the No 1 in the U.S. We had a couple players on our team that got drafted into the NHL.” Coincidentally, Korda’s dad Petr coached Stepanek for a period when the world No 8 was still active and one of the 22-year-old’s trips to the US Open with his dad and Stepanek changed everything.

“I switched over because I went to the US Open in 2009 with my dad and Radek,” Korda explained. “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.”

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The recent Adelaide finalist also had a different journey during his junior career as Petr wanted his son to practise more on the clay instead of hard courts. Korda explained: “I didn’t play a tournament outside of Florida until I was 15 years old basically. My first tournament outside of Florida was an ITF in Houston, Texas.

“My parents kind of brought me up in a different way. I also started playing tennis a lot later than most people. A lot of people here started tennis at three, four, five years old. I switched over when I was 10 years old.” But he hasn’t left ice hockey behind entirely, as the American added: “Whenever I’m home, I still have a couple buddies from when I played ice hockey. Yeah, at least a couple times when I’m home I always go out and skate a bit.”

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