{"id":359434,"date":"2024-01-12T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T10:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359434"},"modified":"2024-01-12T12:01:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T12:01:49","slug":"aussie-star-fires-up-in-epic-semi-against-top-seed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359434","title":{"rendered":"Aussie star fires up in epic semi against top seed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Daria Saville \ufeffproved she is well placed to be competitive at her home <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/australian-open\" title=\"Australian Open\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Australian Open<\/a> after pushing top seed Elise Mertens hard in the semi-finals of the Hobart International on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Australia&#x27;s Saville lost \ufeff6-4, 4-6, 7-5 as Belgium&#x27;s Mertens broke her serve in the 11th game of the final set and held her service in the next game for the win.<\/p>\n<p>Mertens will play Emma Navarro in Saturday&#x27;s final after she beat Yuan Yue 6-4, 6-3.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Watch the 2024 Australian Open live and exclusive on Nine,<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/9now.app.link\/fPnKQ6gxndb\"><em><strong>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <em><strong>and ad-free on<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stan.com.au\/watch\/sport\/tennis\"><em><strong>Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"e1fdae22-db0e-4eb5-9d31-07d6a06f92ab\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/e1fdae22-db0e-4eb5-9d31-07d6a06f92ab\" alt=\"Daria Saville of Australia celebrates in her match against Elise Mertens of Belgium.\" data-width=\"1024\" data-height=\"683\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Saville, a former top 20 player, is ranked 133rd in the world as she continues her recovery from a ruptured ACL.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old was granted a wildcard to the AO and will meet Poland&#x27;s Magdalena Frech in the first round.<\/p>\n<p>Frech is ranked 72nd in the world.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/news-2024-australian-open-john-millman-out-of-qualifiers-retirement-singles\/047f39e3-83c8-434a-a6a0-f81e147a1f04\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Aussie fan favourite reflects on singles career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>EXCLUSIVE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/football\/a-league-news-2024-hiroshi-ibusuki-career-exclusive-adelaide-united-unite-round\/c278c616-42b6-4280-8fbe-1bbe36a436e0\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Adelaide striker opens up on globetrotting career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/news-2024-melbourne-demons-david-schwarz-clayton-oliver-joel-smith-troubles\/15b35324-f219-45f1-8be9-49553ebbb778\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><strong>Former Melbourne star torches &#x27;selfish&#x27; Demons<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-video-id=\"6344723275112\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pickerimage-47.jpg\" alt=\"Adelaide International Semi-final Highlights: Sebastian Korda v Jiri Lehecka\" data-vms-id=\"ref:clra728of00080jmqqz9kinbu\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Jiri Lehecka defeated third seed Sebastian Korda 6-2, 6-1 on Friday to advance to the Adelaide International final.<\/p>\n<p>The Czech player, who has dropped only one set in the tournament, will face Great Britain&#x27;s Jack Draper in Saturday&#x27;s final at Memorial Drive. <\/p>\n<p>Draper beat Kazakhstan&#x27;s Alexander Bublik 7-6, 6-4.<\/p>\n<p>Korda was trying to make it to two Adelaide finals in a row.<\/p>\n<p>He lost last year to Novak Djokovic after having a championship point.<\/p>\n<p>In the WTA portion of the tournament, Daria Kasatkina advanced to the final by walkover after world No.5 Jessica Pegula withdrew with illness.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffKasatkina will meet 2017 Roland-Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko in the decider.<\/p>\n<p>Ostapenko beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 7-6 in her semi-final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Daria Saville \ufeffproved she is well placed to be competitive at her home Australian Open after pushing top seed Elise Mertens hard in the semi-finals <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359434\" title=\"Aussie star fires up in epic semi against top seed\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":359436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=359434"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359439,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359434\/revisions\/359439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/359436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}