Memorable Australian Open run ends for Piedmont’s McDonald

By HOWARD FENDRICH
MELBOURNE, Australia — The string of upset victories by young American men continued Thursday at Melbourne Park, although Piedemont’s Mackenzie “Mackie” McDonald wasn’t able to extend his magical ride at the tournament into the round of 16.
McDonald was eliminated by No. 31 Yoshihito Nishioka 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-2, two days after the unseeded 27-year-old stunned the sports world by beating No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal in the second round.
That was the biggest in a series of attention-grabbing victories by players from the U.S., whose men last won a Grand Slam title 20 years ago when Andy Roddick won the 2003 U.S. Open. A day after McDonald’s stunner, No. 65 in the ATP rankings, upset Nadal, Jenson Brooksby beat No. 2 seed Casper Ruud.
McDonald, whose next scheduled tournament is next month’s Dallas Open, was one of the eight U.S. men to reach the third round. No. 16 Frances Tiafoe also was eliminated on Thursday, and two more third-round matches are all-American: Tommy Paul vs. Brooksby and J.J. Wolf vs. Michael Mmoh.
But at least three Americans will be heading into the fourth round.
It was Sebastian Korda’s turn to add his name to the list of big U.S. winners — and earn a spot in the fourth round — on Thursday with a game Daniil Medvedev described as “kind of different from everybody.”
Korda, the son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr, eliminated two-time runner-up Medvedev 7-6 (7), 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Kordao is a 22-year-old from Florida who is seeded 29th who equaled his best showing at any Grand Slam tournament by reaching the round of 16.
“I always was told how good of a tennis player I can be. Now (I’m) just getting the right people around me, building a really solid team, just trusting the process,” said the 29th-seeded Korda, who was the 2018 junior champion in Australia. “I’m growing as a person, as a player. Just trying to do the right things. Just have fun, enjoy it — good things will happen.”
Medvedev, the No. 7 seed, won the U.S. Open two years ago and made it to the final in Australia in 2021, when he lost to Novak Djokovic, and 2022, when he lost to Nadal after holding a two-set lead. The Russian also was briefly ranked No. 1 last season.
On this night in Rod Laver Arena, it was Korda who dictated most of the points, who put his shots right where he wanted them, who charged forward with verve and slick volleys. He even threw in the occasional drop shot, for good measure.
He compiled nearly twice as many winners as Medvedev, 50-28, and won the point on 75% of his trips to the net, 36 of 48.
“I kind of knew what I had to do. I stuck with it, even when I was going up and down with the emotions,” Korda said.
How would he describe that game plan?
“Just go for it,” he said with a laugh.
To reach his first Slam quarterfinal, Korda will need to defeat No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz on Saturday. That day’s other men’s matches: Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Jannik Sinner, Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Jiri Lehecka, and Karen Khachanov vs. Nishioka.
The women’s upcoming fourth-round matches: Iga Swiatek vs. Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula vs. Barbora Krejcikova, Coco Gauff vs. Jelena Ostapenko, and Victoria Azarenka vs. Zhu Lin.
As well as Pegula is playing, dropping zero sets and just 11 games total along the way to Week 2, you might think she’d be completely pleased with how things are going.
Ah, but Pegula is a self-described perfectionist. And so she gave herself a bit of a hard time about what happened late in the second set of her 6-0, 6-2 victory over Marta Kostyuk.
“I was annoyed,” Pegula said after the 65-minute contest.
By what, exactly?
Well, the 28-year-old from New York was cruising along, having won 10 of the first 11 games and serving with a 30-love lead, when she stumbled ever so slightly, ever so briefly. She missed three first serves in a row. She put a backhand into the net. She got lobbed. She double-faulted. She started muttering under her breath. She sent a backhand long to end an 11-stroke exchange. Add it up, and Pegula got broken there, her lead in the second set shrinking to 4-2. For three minutes, her play was less than ideal.
Oh, the horror.
“When I was younger, it came off as kind of a bad attitude. I’d get really negative or down on myself,” Pegula said, adding that she has worked on “not being so hard on myself during the matches.”