Sebastian Korda holds off "electric" Ben Shelton in Shanghai for first Masters 1000 semifinal

Sebastian Korda is heating up as the 2023 season enters its final weeks.

On Thursday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, the 23-year-old reached the biggest semifinal of his career after battling past countryman Ben Shelton, 6-7 (10), 6-2, 7-6 (6), to win the first-time encounter in two hours and 55 minutes.

“I played an incredible match, Ben did as well. I think it was a really high level, we had a lot of great points out there,” Korda told the World Feed afterwards. “Hopefully it’s the first of many, many, many battles we play against each other. He’s such an electric tennis player. It was a lot of fun to share the court with him today.”

In the opening set, Shelton served for it at 6-5 only to get broken at love in the ensuing game. The left-hander then needed five set points to eke out a tense tie-break, saving one of his own at 8-9 when his opponent’s backhand return flew long.

Korda shook off his missed opportunity. As Shelton’s level dipped, the Bradenton, Fla. native was stronger in his execution behind the baseline. Korda leveled the contest with an unreturnable inside-in forehand and took 14 of 16 second-serve return points to get back on even terms.

The momentum stayed with the No. 26 seed. Knifing the bulk of his returns, Korda broke the US Open semifinalist at love to open their decider. At 2-1, he safely recovered from 0-40 by hitting his spots on key first serves.

Having saved a pair of break points to avoid going down a double break, Shelton broke Korda for 4-4 in a game where he hit his head on a forehand follow through. The 20-year-old once again bailed himself out of a 15-40 hole with clutch serving up the T—an ace and heavy second serve to regain the scoreboard lead.

Korda held firm on his serve to keep with Shelton, bringing the competitors to a winner-take-all tiebreaker. The smooth-striking Korda won the first three points, then reached 4-1 after a taking a 137 MPH serve up the line with a blazing backhand return winner. Shelton would later applaud the shot when the two embraced at the net.

Pressure escalated when Korda’s 6-1 lead all but evaporated. After Shelton erased two match points on his serve, Korda netted a forehand volley and yanked his serve +1 backhand wide. Shelton tied things up at 6-6 with a well-placed overhead, only to give the mini break back with a forehand unforced error. On his sixth match point, Korda finally shut the door by rushing the net to close a winning volley.

“Thankful to stay calm, for sure. I played some bad points, but I always believed in myself, even at 6-all,” said Korda. “I just thought about putting the return in the court, somehow getting my racquet on it. Luckily finished it off.”

Korda arrived to Shanghai on the back of reaching the final in Astana, his second runner-up finish of the season (Adelaide). In the third round here, he ousted 2019 champion Daniil Medvedev to post his first Top 5 victory.

For a spot in Sunday’s championship clash, Korda will meet Hubert Hurkacz. The No. 16 seed also rallied from a set down, ending Fabian Marozsan’s run with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory. Hurkacz, a former Masters 1000 champion in Miami, fired 18 aces to advance past the Hungarian after one hour and 43 minutes.