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ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Third-seeded Sebastian Korda advanced to the Adelaide International semifinals for the second year in a row after beating Australian wild-card entry Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday.
The 23-year-old American made last year’s final in Adelaide, where he lost to top-seeded Novak Djokovic in three sets after blowing a championship point.
Sixth-seeded and 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko also advanced to the semifinals with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Marta Kostyuk in Adelaide.
“It was a tough match, of course, but finally I won in two sets, I managed it,” Ostapenko said on court. “I feel like I was striking the ball well today. Even in the first set when it was 5-2 to 5-5, I still was playing my game, and then at the end I found it. Just happy to be through.”
Daria Kasatkina moved into the semifinals without having to hit a ball after her quarterfinal opponent, Laura Siegemund, withdrew from their match with an undisclosed illness or injury. No. 15-ranked Kasatkina is one win away from repeating her finals appearance at the second of last year’s two Adelaide events — the second was held during the second week of the Australian Open.
Kasatkina will play the winner of the later quarterfinal between Jessica Pegula and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Both top-seeded players were in quarterfinal action later in the ATP-WTA tournament at Adelaide. American Tommy Paul played Britain’s Jack Draper and Elena Rybakina, last year’s Australian Open finalist and winner of the Brisbane International on Sunday, took on Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Ostapenko will face the winner of the Rybakina-Alexandrova match in the semifinals.
MEHRTENS INTO SEMIS AT HOBART
Top-seeded Elise Mehrtens advanced to the semifinals of the Hobart International with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Arantxa Rus. Mehrtens is attempting to win her third Hobart title — the Belgian player won in Hobart in 2017 and 2018.
In another quarterfinal, Emma Navarro beat Viktoriya Tomova 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.