ADELAIDE, 8 Jan: Novak Djokovic showed no signs of an injury that might derail his Australian Open campaign when he beat unseeded American Sebastian Korda 6-7 (8), 7-6 (3), 6-4 Sunday to win the Adelaide International.
\nDjokovic worried Open organizers when he said after his semifinal in Adelaide against Daniil Medvedev that he had been troubled by a tight hamstring. He said the injury eased as the match progressed.
\nIf there had been any lingering issue, it likely would have been exposed in Sunday\u2019s marathon final that stretched over more than three hours and finished with Djokovic claiming his 92nd career singles title.
\nHe also took his second Adelaide title 16 years after his first; he won the tournament in 2007, aged 19.
\nDjokovic had to save a match and chamionship point at 5-6 in the second set Sunday and was fully stretched by the 22-year-old Korda, son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda.
\nThe match turned on a handful of points. Djokovic held serve to love in his first four service games of the final set and then held serve after being taken to deuce by Korda in his fifth service game.
\nDjokovic then rallied from 15-40 down at 5-4 in Korda\u2019s next service game to win four-straight points and take the set in 51 minutes \u2014 and the match in 3 hours, 9 minutes.
\n\u201cI hope everyone enjoyed the show tonight, it\u2019s been an amazing week,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cSeb\u2019s had an amazing tournament and put in an amazing effort today.
\n\u201cI think he was closer to victory at times today than I was. It was only a couple of shots, a couple of points.\u201d
\nDjokovic at times showed irritation with this coach Goran Ivanicevic who supported him from a courtside box or remonstrated with himself after a wasted point.
\n\u201cI\u2019d like to thank my team for handling me, tolerating me in the good and bad times today. I\u2019m sure they didn\u2019t have such a blast with me going back and forth with them but I appreciate them being here.\u201d
\nHis serve was reliable at the start of the first set and he didn\u2019t concede a point on first serve until Korda broke him to lead 5-4. Djokovic immediately broke back and took the set to a tiebreaker.
\nKorda had an early lead and five set points but Djokovic saved them all and leveled the tiebreaker at 6-6. Djokovic framed a forehand that sailed into the crowd and gave Korda another advantage, allowing the American to take the tiebreaker 10-8.
\nDjokovic saved a match point at 5-6 on serve in the second set, then forced the set into another tiebreaker that he took comfortably.
\nKorda produced some outstanding service games and troubled Djokovic at times with the kick of his serve. But he was broken for only the second time in the match in the 10th game of the deciding set, with only a couple of points making the difference.
\nEarlier, second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka claimed her 11th WTA Tour singles title but her first in almost two years when she overcame qualifier Linda Noskova 6-2 7-6 (4) in the women\u2019s final.
\nIn doing so she ended an extraordinary run by the 18-year-old Noskova who beat third-seeded Daria Kasatkina and former Australian Open champion Viktoria Asarenka in the main draw on the way to her first final.
\nSabalenka didn\u2019t drop a set all week and seemed set for another comfortable win when she took the first set on Sunday. But Noskova was much more competitive in the second, holding serve and putting pressure on Sabalenka\u2019s serve, especially with her powerful backhand returns.
\n\u201cI think I\u2019m a different player right now,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cMaybe a little bit smarter, a little bit calmer on court. Just a little bit of everything changed.
\n\u201cI want to congratulate (Noskova) on an amazing week. I think you\u2019re going to have a great future and 100 percent appear in many more finals.\u201d
\nSabalenka\u2019s last single title came in Madrid in May 2021 but she went without a title in 2022 despite reaching three finals.
\nShe ended the year ranked fifth after qualifying for the season-ending WTA Finals in Fort Worth where she lost in the final to Caroline Garcia.
\nSabalenka now has won three tournaments in the first week of a season after Shenzen in 2019 and Abu Dhabi in 2021. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ADELAIDE, 8 Jan: Novak Djokovic showed no signs of an injury that might derail his Australian Open campaign when he beat unseeded American Sebastian Korda 6-7 (8), 7-6 (3), 6-4 Sunday to win the Adelaide International. Djokovic worried Open organizers when he said after his semifinal in Adelaide against Daniil Medvedev that he had been […]<\/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-208466","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\/208466","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=208466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}