ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL

January 7, 2023

Sebastian Korda

Press Conference

S. KORDA/Y. Nishioka

7-6, 1-0 (ret.)

THE MODERATOR: Sebi advances to his fifth career ATP Tour final. He'll try to win his second title.

Sebi, talk about the opening week of the season here. Very solid result so far.

SEBASTIAN KORDA: Very good. Tough draw, but very, very excited for the way I'm playing. It's a lot of confidence leading up to the big one.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Touching first on the two potential opponents you have...

SEBASTIAN KORDA: Both are pretty tough to play. I would love to play either of them. I played Daniil in 2021. Just see what I learned from that, how I can change a few things here and there.

Yeah, very excited for either one who plays. It's always a great thing to learn from different kinds of players when you play them. I'm very excited for it.

Q. You haven't played Novak before.

SEBASTIAN KORDA: Nope.

Q. What will it take to beat someone of his caliber?

SEBASTIAN KORDA: I think to get over that finish line, I think he is so good, if Plan A isn't working, he goes to Plan B, Plan C, plan D. He has all these different tactics he can use against you. He reads his opponents probably the best that anyone can read.

I think it takes a big game to beat him. I think I have that type of style. Just try to go into him and try to come out on top.

Q. What does this moment mean to you? Ahead of a Grand Slam, a lot of hype about you for a while, a chance to play Novak or Daniil.

SEBASTIAN KORDA: Yeah, I mean, it's massive. Playing either against Novak Djokovic, one of the greatest of all time, or Medvedev, who in the last couple years has been on the top. I'm really excited for it.

It's going to be a great learning experience for me no matter what the outcome. But I'm going to go for the win tomorrow and I'm going to give it my all.

Q. Nick Kyrgios has spoken in recent days about the pressure and expectations he always faces when he plays at his home Grand Slam. You have different pressure, your family has had so much success in different sports. How do you handle that?

SEBASTIAN KORDA: Obviously he has way more pressure than I do.

But my parents were really big on kind of just taking a step back, and you can play tennis, professional tennis, for 15, maybe 20 years, depending how good you are. Federer played into his 40s. It's kind of just even. I'm super young, 22, but I'm not super young as well. There's 18-year-olds, 17-year-olds coming up.

Just learning every day. Play good match, bad match, learn from it, keep going. The big thing is just to enjoy it. Really privileged to be in this spot, to play these types of tournaments and having people watch. It's all very good so far. Hopefully I can keep going.

Q. Your ranking will go up with this result. With Alcaraz withdrawing, you're guaranteed to have a seed at the Australian Open. What difference does that make for you?

SEBASTIAN KORDA: Big. You don't have to face a top speed in potentially the first round. It's really big. I've only been seeded one before, actually played Alcaraz in the third round. It's pretty cool to come back to my second Aussie Open and be seeded.

A lot of positivities this week. I'm excited.