Tennis News: Aryna Sabalenka and Sebastian Korda race to Adelaide final

The son of former world number two Petr Korda, the unseeded American was up 7-6 (7/5), 1-0 when Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan asked for a medical timeout and left the match.

Nishioka was forced to retire after receiving treatment on his upper right thigh, throwing a cloud over his preparations for the Australian Open later this month.

"Very excited for the way I'm playing and a lot of confidence leading into the big one (final)," said Korda, 22, who won his first and only title on clay in Parma in 2021 while making two finals last year.

"Excited to play either one (Djokovic or Medvedev). It's always a great thing to learn from different kinds of players," he said of Sunday's final.

"It's going to be a great learning experience whatever the outcome and, you know, I'm going to go for the win."

First-seed Djokovic will compete against third-seed Medvedev of Russia in the evening semifinal. Since September, Medvedev has an astonishing 21-1 record.

The Serbian, ranked fifth in the world, has an 8-4 advantage in their head-to-head confrontations, which have all taken place on hard courts.

Aryna Sabalenka, ranked fifth in the world, advanced quickly to the women's final by outlasting veteran Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu in five games.

As she prepares for the first Grand Slam of the year, she will receive a title match against either young Czech prodigy Linda Noskova or world number two Tunisian Ons Jabeur.

"I'm happy with the level I played today," said the Belarusian, targeting an 11th career title and a first since Abu Dhabi and Madrid in 2021 after winning 6-3, 6-2.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Aryna Sabalenka beats marketa vondrousova 6-3 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sabalenka?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sabalenka</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/quarterfinal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#quarterfinal</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/adelaideinternational?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#adelaideinternational</a> ( Getty ) <a href="https://t.co/h4GMsIw2Re">pic.twitter.com/h4GMsIw2Re</a></p>&mdash; Phil (@tennis_phil) <a href="https://twitter.com/tennis_phil/status/1611218308069740544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"She's playing a different style, so super happy that I was able to be in the match.

"We did everything right in the pre-season, I think this is the key," she added in explaining her good early-season form, which has seen her come this far without dropping a set.

Begu advanced to the final four by defeating seventh seed Jelena Ostapenko and fourth seed Veronika Kudermetova. Still, she was no match for Sabalenka's strength on the serve and her fierce returns.