Korda beats Nakashima in all-American semi at Next Gen finals

MILAN (AP) — Sebastian Korda beat compatriot Brandon Nakashima in five sets on Friday to become the first American to reach the final at the Next Gen ATP Finals.

The 21-year-old Korda, the son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda, was the favorite to win the all-American semifinal but struggled to find his rhythm before prevailing 4-3 (3), 2-4, 1-4, 4-2, 4-2.

He set up three match points in the final game and converted the first with a backhand that only barely crept over the net. Korda held up his hands as if in apology at how he had managed the winning point.

Korda will face the winner between Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and Sebastian Baez of Argentina.

Both Korda and Alcaraz won all three of their matches in the round-robin group stage.

It is the fourth edition of the tournament in Milan for the top 21-and-under players on the ATP Tour. It was canceled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The ATP Finals will also be in Italy, in Turin next week.

There are different rules at the Next Gen tournament, including on-court coaching, no-Ad scoring, medical timeout limits, and Hawk-Eye making all the line calls.

The most drastic change is the shorter first-to-four set, with a tiebreaker at 3-3.

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