Korda 'hungry' for Women's PGA after US Open heartbreak
HOUSTON: World number one Nelly Korda says her agonising near-miss at the US Women's Open earlier this month has left her hungrier for success as the Women's PGA Championship tees off on Thursday.
The 26-year-old American had to settle for second place behind Maja Stark at Erin Hills three weeks ago after dropped shots in the final round ultimately torpedoed her chances of bagging a third major crown.
'Just an absolute heartbreaker,' Korda said immediately after her runner-up finish. 'But that's golf.'
Korda has long targeted the Open as one of her priorities ever since making her major championship debut in the tournament at the age of 14 in 2013, and this year's tilt was the closest she has ever come to landing the elusive title.
Korda though says she is ready to turn the page on her disappointment as the third major of the season gets underway at PGA Frisco's 6,604-yard Fields Ranch East layout on Thursday.
'It just makes you hungrier,' Korda said of her Open heartache. 'For me, I hate making mistakes; obviously I love winning.
'You don't get to win often, but there's nothing like it being in contention, so I think that's kind of what makes me hungrier to come back and to work harder and put myself into that position.
'You can look at it in a positive way, you can look at it in a negative way, but at the end of the day, three weeks after, I can spin it in a positive way, and it's going to make me hopefully hungrier.'
Korda arrived in Texas this week still chasing her first title of 2025 after a dominant season last year that included seven wins, among them the second major of her career at the Chevron Championship.
While the defeat is a motivator for Korda, Open champion Stark said her victory at Erin Hills still hasn't sunk in.
'I haven't really thought about it,' Stark said. 'I don't think I really had too much time to digest it because I had the tournament the next week, and then last week I had off.'
Stark's first major title earned her a bumper payday of $2.4 million, money that she says remains untouched.
'I feel like everyone has been asking me if I've treated myself to anything or bought something,' Stark said. 'I was like 'No'. I was pretty happy with what I had before and I'm still happy with it.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
10 hours ago
- The Star
Tennis-Boulter hat-trick bid ends in Nottingham
NOTTINGHAM (Reuters) -Katie Boulter's bid for a hat-trick of Nottingham titles came to an end as the Briton was beaten 6-3 3-6 6-4 by American McCartney Kessler at the WTA 250 event on Friday. Eighth seed Boulter secured a service break early in the deciding set but Kessler stormed back to reach the semi-finals. Boulter became Britain's number one when winning the Nottingham title in 2023 and held it until being knocked off top spot by Emma Raducanu this week. Kessler only recorded her first main draw Tour-level win on grass last week at Queen's but is now eyeing a title on the surface. She will face either Slovak Rebecca Sramkova or Czech Linda Noskova in the semi-final. Saturday's other semi-final will feature Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska and Poland's Magda Linette. Yastremska beat Canada's fifth seed Leylah Fernandez 6-3 7-6(6), while Linette beat Clara Tauson 6-2 7-5 to reach a career-first semi-final on grass. (Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
The Star
12 hours ago
- The Star
Tennis-Draper reaches Queen's semis, seals top-four seeding at Wimbledon
Tennis - Queen's Club Championships - Queen's Club, London, Britain - June 20, 2025 Britain's Jack Draper celebrates after winning his quarter final match against Brandon Nakashima of the U.S. Action Images via Reuters/Peter Cziborra LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's Jack Draper continued his Wimbledon build-up by reaching the semi-finals at Queen's Club for the first time with a 6-4 5-7 6-4 defeat of American Brandon Nakashima on Friday. Draper not only kept himself on track for the prestigious ATP 500 title, but also secured the win that guarantees a top-four seeding at Wimbledon where he will be the big home hope. The 23-year-old was fully tested by world number 32 Nakashima and his powerful game began to misfire as he lost the second set on a baking hot day on Andy Murray Arena. But Draper settled back into the groove in the deciding set and broke serve in the seventh game with one of his trademark forehand pile drivers. The left-hander had to save a break point when serving for the match at 5-4 but recovered to seal victory and set up a clash with Czech Jiri Lehecka who had earlier beaten Britain's Jacob Fearnley 7-5 6-2. "It means the world to me to reach the semi-finals here," Draper, bidding to become the first British player to win the title at the prestigious west London club since Murray won it for the fifth time in 2016. While being ranked fourth means Draper will avoid either defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or world number one Jannik Sinner until the semi-finals at Wimbledon, Draper shrugged off the significance of that when asked about it. "I kept getting asked about that by the journalists but I've got to reach the semi-finals first," he said. "But it is an incredible position, I was at Wimbledon last year ranked 40 so to go there as fourth seed is a testament to all the hard work my team has done so very proud of that." Alcaraz was following Draper on to court as he took on Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech in his quarter-final. (Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Toby Davis)
The Sun
13 hours ago
- The Sun
Zverev vomits mid-match, rallies to reach Halle semis
ALEXANDER Zverev's quest for a first grasscourt title took an unexpected turn at the Halle Open on Friday when the German second seed was forced to sprint from court to vomit mid-match before rallying to defeat Italy's Flavio Cobolli 6-4 7-6(8). Second seed Zverev started the match on the front foot by breaking in the first game but as he was serving in the second, he requested a toilet break to throw up and bolted down the tunnel. Once he returned, Zverev struggled with the intensity at first and clearly looked unwell, bending over in exhaustion after points and gasping for breath after a marathon rally. 'I felt fine before the match. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I felt really, really bad. I felt ill, went to throw up and then 15 minutes later I felt OK again,' Zverev said. 'I don't know what it was, I've never experienced that before. I hope I'll be fine in the next couple of hours when the adrenaline settles. After that I think it was a pretty good match.' Although nowhere near 100%, Zverev held serve as he slowly drew on his reserves of energy, firing his first ace of the match on set point. The second set was an even contest as Cobolli relied on his movement to continue troubling Zverev, but the German eventually triumphed in a close tiebreak, finishing the match with 22 winners and 12 points at the net. The semi-final pits Zverev against Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev, a familiar foe who holds a 12-7 head-to-head advantage and has won their last three meetings. 'I think he's the guy that I played the most in my career. I'm looking forward to it,' Zverev added. 'A lot of things happened in the last 18 months. He's one of my toughest opponents in my career. It's going to be a great match and I'm really looking forward to facing him.' Medvedev moved into the semi-finals with a 6-4 6-3 victory over American Alex Michelsen despite suffering a nosebleed in the second set which forced the 2021 Halle runner-up to take a medical timeout. However, the Russian served well to deny his opponent a single break point opportunity and wrapped up the contest in 85 minutes as he reached the last four without dropping a set, with the only thing causing problems being the shadows on the court. 'The shadows on the court made the conditions quite difficult. It took some time to get used to it. It was then better in the second set,' said Medvedev, who will return to the top 10 ahead of Wimbledon.
