Sebastian Korda lifted the Mubadala Citi DC Open trophy on Sunday evening for the biggest title of his career, marking the end of a history-making week for the American.
The 24-year-old claimed his first ATP 500 crown, joining father Petr Korda on the event’s champions’ list. But he also became one of the first four ATP Tour players to wear a live microphone during a match. The innovation was part of the 2024 ATP Tour Doubles Trial.
Korda, doubles partner Alex Michelsen, Harri Heliovaara and Jamie Murray all participated. Heliovaara, who last month won the Wimbledon doubles title with Henry Patten, became the first player to wear the live mic in his first-round match.
The Finnish player also wore in his second-round match, a loss alongside Patten. Heliovaara explained that he is always happy to do what he can to promote doubles and the players, so it was an easy decision to participate once he felt comfortable with the equipment.
“I think we need personalities, more stars in the doubles part of this game and the microphones are a great way to make that a little easier on court. I felt very comfortable with the microphone, it didn't bother me at all, the technology. I didn't have to think anything if I'm saying something stupid or not,” Heliovaara said. “I’m pretty open about my tennis career anyway so I felt very comfortable with wearing the microphone.”
After watching the trial throughout the week, the 35-year-old said he hopes that in the future there will be more instances of partners both wearing microphones. In Washington, Korda and Michelsen did it twice.
“I think we will get more discussion that way, but we had a couple of matches where we had both members of one team mic'd and I think that worked really well. It was interesting to hear,” Heliovaara said. “Some singles guys also playing like Korda, Michelsen, I think that was the most interesting for me. A lot of talking, a lot of jokes, sometimes a little bit more serious, but it's a very good insight for the fans and I hope this trial continues.”
Murray lost his opening match alongside Michael Venus, but was happy that he participated in the trial and like Heliovaara, had no issues wearing the technology.
“I think it was a pretty cool innovation,” Murray said. “I think that it's definitely something that is interesting for fans to see the communication within the team, the chemistry. I think that's a cool thing to to get across for the viewers at home.
“I think if there's more time between the points then the broadcasters will get more from it because the players will have time to communicate more to not just set plays and off you go. There will be proper communication in terms of potentially rescuing your partner, talking about what's actually going on in the match, the ebbs and flows of the match, that sort of stuff.”
At the end of the week, when Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow emerged victorious with the title, Tournament Chairman Mark Ein made it a point to let the crowd know about the trial.
“This was the first tournament ever where we put live mics on doubles players. So if you watch it on TV, or you watch the stream, you could actually listen to the players talking to each other,” Ein said. “We've seen it in other sports. I think it's an innovation that hopefully is going to get adopted around the tour. It brings the fans on the court into the action in a way I don't think anything else does. So I want to thank the players and the ATP tour for sponsoring and supporting that initiative.”
