On seventh match point, Raducanu stops Yuan to reach quarterfinals in Seoul

Emma Raducanu booked her place in her fifth quarterfinal of 2024 with a 6-4, 6-3 upset of No.8 seed Yuan Yue at the Hana Bank Korea Open in 2 hours and 4 minutes.

In a thrilling home stretch, Yuan saved five match points in the penultimate game of the match before breaking Raducanu to stay alive. However, the former US Open champion closed out the win on return in the subsequent game, converting her seventh match point.

Seoul: Scores | Order of Play | Draw

Raducanu has entered the last few months of the season eager to "thrive in Asia," and she has continued to do just that in Seoul after taking out 2023 runner-up Yuan. The Briton will next face No.1 seed Daria Kasatkina, who defeated Hailey Baptiste 6-4, 6-2. Kasatkina came up with a number of superb defensive plays to get the better of the American, as well as a brilliant sliced winner in the final game of the match.

Kasatkina owns a 2-0 head-to-head lead over Raducanu, including a 6-2, 6-2 rout in the Eastbourne quarterfinals three months ago.

"I think these courts suit her because they bounce quite a bit," said Raducanu. "But for me, every time I get exposure to that top level of opponent, it's invaluable. It allows me to build confidence. It's a match where I don't really have anything to lose."

Tactical rewards: From the outset, Raducanu approached the match with a clear strategy. Longer baseline exchanges favored Yuan, whose ability to generate pace on her forehand drew gasps at times. However, Raducanu was able to stay on top by relentlessly attacking the Chinese player's second serve, particularly with her backhand.

A slew both both clean return winners and one-two punches off that wing followed, and the tactic proved particularly useful in closing out the tight first set and building on that momentum at the start of the second. Yuan landed only 55% of her first serves, and won just 36% of her second-serve points.

Raducanu was able to back up her prowess on return with strong serving, landing 11 aces in total to add to the 10 she hit against Peyton Stearns in the first round.

Service tweaks: Afterwards, Raducanu said that she and her team have been overhauling her serve.

"If you watch my serve over the past few months, since the clay season it's gone through a lot of iterations in terms of swing," she said. "In general, if you play a lot of tournaments, things move out of place without you really realising, and then it's harder to get the natural feeling back. We've been working hard the last week looking at the swing, and which swing suits me best. It's been pretty big changes, it's not like we're just changing the ball placement.

"Me and my coach decided we were going to take a risk and we were going to tweak things. We know it might not pay off short-term. But one thing I do back myself on is I pick things up pretty quickly. In the first match it didn't transfer yet, but today it definitely did. I just have to think bigger-picture. My goals are finishing this season strong but inevitably to set myself up in the best way possible for next year, because next year I really want to hit the ground running."

Keeping focused: The penultimate game of the match, a seven-deuce tug-of-war, had the Seoul crowd on the edge of their seats. At 5-2, 40-15, Raducanu appeared set to close out the match -- but she missed her first two match points with cheap backhand errors. Yuan, sensing opportunity, began striking the ball with renewed vigor and accuracy, and eventually found a clean return winner to take her fourth break point.

Raducanu was able to shrug off the drama, though, and simply broke Yuan to 15 in the very next game.

"Second set, a bit of nerves came in," she said afterwards. "I haven't been in that situation much. I just had to remind myself I was a set and 5-3 up. I was ready to break, I'd been putting pressure on her service games all the time."

Haddad Maia, Tomova advance to quarterfinals: Elsewhere, a clash of former Seoul finalists saw No.3 seed and 2017 runner-up Beatriz Haddad Maia defeat 2018 runner-up Ajla Tomljanovic. The Brazilian had to hold off a late charge from 5-1 down in the third set from Tomljanovic, and will next face lucky loser Polina Kudermetova.

Bulgaria's Viktoriya Tomova advanced to her fifth tour-level quarterfinal of 2024, after Amanda Anisimova was forced to retire due to heat illness trailing 7-5, 4-1. Tomova will bid to reach her second WTA 500 semifinal of the year against Veronika Kudermetova.