Xinxin Yao vs Maya Joint — R32 — Korea Open

Maya Joint needed 2 hours 37 minutes, a set-down recovery and three saved match points to get past qualifier Xinxin Yao in the Korea Open round of 32. The No. 5 seed won fewer points than her opponent, 105 of 212, and fewer games, 13 of 28. Yao, a 22-year-old ranked WTA No. 280 who began the season at No. 396, set the early terms. She broke Joint's opening service game, broke again in game 5 for 4-1 and converted three of five break points in taking the first set. Holding serve then became the exception. The second set produced eight breaks, and Joint saved three match points there before taking the tiebreak, 7-6(7). The deciding set stayed unsettled a while longer. Joint broke in game 3, Yao broke straight back in game 4, and Joint's break in game 7 for 4-3 was the one that held up. Neither player made much of her second serve: Joint won 40 percent of those points, Yao 33, and both hit six double faults. Joint reaches the last 16 having lost four of her previous five matches, the most recent a three-set defeat to Elina Svitolina at the US Open. Yao broke serve eight times and still leaves Korea in the round of 32.