Anna Bondar vs Alina Charaeva — R16 — Korea Open

Anna Bondar reached the Korea Open quarterfinals the slow way, beating Alina Charaeva over three hours and 15 minutes in Seoul's round of 16. The sixth seed, ranked WTA No. 69, took the opening set 6-4, lost a second-set tiebreak and came through the decider in another breaker. Each player saved a match point. Neither serve offered much shelter. The first set alone produced five breaks: Bondar converted all three break points she earned, Charaeva two of five. Charaeva broke for 2-1, Bondar answered for 2-2 and broke again for 4-2, and Charaeva broke back to 3-4. The second set ran along similar lines, Charaeva breaking for 3-2 and Bondar breaking back in game 10 for 5-5 before the tiebreak went Charaeva's way. In the third, Bondar broke in game 3 and Charaeva broke straight back in game 4; from there both held to a second tiebreak. Bondar held 13 of her 17 service games to Charaeva's 12 of 17 and finished with 121 points to 114. Charaeva, 24 and ranked WTA No. 133 at the time, had reached the last 16 by coming through three sets against Sofia Kenin. Here she double-faulted 15 times to Bondar's five, seven of them in the deciding set, and won 38% of her second-serve points to Bondar's 48%. Bondar had won just one of her five matches before this week, and she needed three sets to get past Renata Zarazua in her opening match. She now leads the meetings on record 2-0, after their quarterfinal at the Hamburg Open on clay in July.