American Sebastian Korda Wins Boys Singles Title; Liang En Shuo Captures Girls' Title

The son of 1998 Australian Open men's champion Petr Korda took home the 2018 boys singles title, while Liang En Shuo captured the girls'.

Scott Barbour and Michael Dodge/Getty Images

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)  — American Sebastian Korda, son of 1998 Australian Open men's champion Petr Korda, won the boys singles title on Saturday, beating Chun Hsin-tseng of Taiwan 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the final on Rod Laver Arena.

Liang En Shuo became the first player from Taiwan to win the girls singles crown, beating France's Clara Burel 6-3, 6-4. It was the 18th consecutive singles victory for Liang.

It's a family affair in Australia for the Kordas. Sebastian's older sister, professional golfer Jessica, who plays on the LPGA Tour, won the 2012 Women's Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.

Serving for the match at 5-4, Korda utilized his thunderous serve to set up two match points. And he only needed one as the scurrying Chun sent a backhand wide to concede the match.

It was Korda's Australian Open debut after he reached the 2017 French Open boys third round and the second round at Wimbledon. He played only doubles at the U.S. Open.

Ranked seventh in the world at the end of last year, the 17-year-old Liang's title triumph was retribution for her doubles partner, China's Xinyu Wang.

Burel upset Wang, the top seed, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 in the semifinals.

The French 16-year-old had eliminated three seeded opponents, including Wang, in her march to the final.

Burel had two break points and couldn't convert them to square the second set. And the title was Liang's when Burel flew a forehand over the baseline.