ADELAIDE, 6 Jan: Novak Djokovic beat Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 6-4 at the Adelaide International on Friday to set up a semifinal with Daniil Medvedev.
\nThe combined ATP-WTA event is a warmup for this year\u2019s Australian Open, which the top-seeded Djok-ovic missed last year after being barred from the country because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19.
\nMedvedev, the runner-up last year to Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open, defeated fellow Russian Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-3 on Friday.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s never easy to play your compatriot,\u201d Medvedev said. \u201cI\u2019m happy that I managed to really raise my level, especially in the end of both sets, and really happy to be through to the semis.\u201d
\nMedvedev is the 2021 U.S. Open champion, but has lost twice in the finals in Australia \u2014 and in 2021 it was against Djokovic.
\n\u201cFor sure I played well last year and I\u2019m playing well right now,\u201d Medvedev said, \u201cTo be honest, that\u2019s all that matters. In order to win a slam, or be in the final, you have to be at your best for seven matches.\u201d
\n\u201cI managed to do it once and I was really close last year,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to try to do again in a few weeks in Melbourne.\u201d
\nIn other quarterfinals on Friday, American Sebastian Korda defeated sixth-seeded Jannik Sinner 7-5, 6-1 and Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan beat Alexei Popyrin of Australia. Korda will face Nishioka in the semifinals.
\nTeenage qualifier Linda Noskova also beat two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka. The 18-year-old Czech player overcame Azarenka 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (6) in a quarterfinal that lasted nearly three hours.
\nA first-round winner over third-seeded Daria Kasatkina, Noskova has now won five consecutive matches in only her sixth appearance in the main draw of a WTA event.
\nWorld No. 5 Aryna Sabalenka was the first woman through to the semifinals after beating Marketa Vondrousova 6-3, 7-5. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ADELAIDE, 6 Jan: Novak Djokovic beat Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 6-4 at the Adelaide International on Friday to set up a semifinal with Daniil Medvedev. The combined ATP-WTA event is a warmup for this year\u2019s Australian Open, which the top-seeded Djok-ovic missed last year after being barred from the country because he was not vaccinated against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-208354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}