Sebastian Korda Reveals How He Upset Carlos Alcaraz in Miami Open

March Madness has finally hit the 2026 Miami Open. On Sunday evening, the 32-seed Sebastian Korda upset ATP World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in a gutsy, third-round battle: 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

Kora was asked during his on-court interview, "How did you do it, especially after losing that second set, to just collect yourself again?" Korda said with a smile, "Yeah, a lot of soul-searching, that's for sure."

Korda had an opportunity to serve it out in the second set, but let the match slip extend into a decider. However, the 25-year-old showed incredible resilience. His secret? Playing average, according to Korda.

The American continued, "I've gone through a lot of things, you know, I've played a lot of great players. I haven't really been able to get it done, but I felt always when I was playing these top players that I would kind of just start spraying the ball and try to do a little bit too much than I really need to do.

And with Ryan [Harrison], we sat down, and our goal today was to play average. It was just have an average ball. Don't try to do too much with it because that's when you kind of get in trouble. And that's kind of what he's searching for, is you start spraying, and then you get yourself in trouble with against him."

When asked what his top level is, Korda explained, "Well, I mean, like the ball speed, not the way how I played, for sure. I was as aggressive as possible. I served great throughout the whole match and, yeah, that's that's kind of what you have to do to play to beat a player like him.

He's unbelievable in every aspect of his game. The movement, volleys, forehand, backhand, there's nothing he can't do. So, yeah, I definitely needed to do, I needed to be aggressive. I needed to take the ball out of his hand and take the point in my favor."

Today was Alcaraz's worst loss by ranking since his early exit at last year's Miami Open. Of course, that was a catalyst for an incredible spring and summer for the Spanish superstar.

After today, Alcaraz falls to 17-2 and will remain as the world No. 1. However, Jannik Sinner has zero points to defend from now until the Rome Masters. This provides Sinner with a chance to gain ground on his contemporary in the ATP Rankings.

Meanwhile, the World No. 36 Korda improves to 12-5 on the season. He will the winner of Karen Khachanov and Martin Landaluce in the Round of 16 on Tuesday, March 24.

The Miami Open presented by Itau runs through March 29. Stay locked into Sports Illustrated's Serve On SI for all of your tennis news from the court and beyond.