With a spot in the semi-finals of the Korea Open on the line, Emma Raducanu and top seed Daria Kasatkina square off in an intriguing quarter-final on Saturday.
The Briton came through a marathon two-setter with Yue Yuan to keep her Seoul journey going, while the Russian was a straightforward winner over Hailey Baptiste in her opening tie.
Match preview
On the back of a gruelling three-set showdown with Peyton Stearns in unforgiving temperatures, Raducanu looked to be on course for a less stressful experience in her second-round meeting with Chinese eighth seed Yuan, although it was anything but right at the death.
Indeed, the former US Open champion let five match points slip through her grasp as Yuan miraculously broke back in the eighth game of the second set, but the Chinese player's serve abandoned her when she needed it most, and Raducanu finally got the job done on match point number seven.
The 21-year-old needed just over two hours to come through that taxing tussle, in which she fired 11 aces past Yuan and also attacked her opponent's second serve with ferocious winners, although a few errors prevented her from wrapping up the win as quickly as she would have liked.
Nevertheless, the former British number one can now call herself a Korea Open quarter-finalist as she writes a new chapter in her US Open redemption story, which also includes a section on "pretty big" serving changes as she looks ahead to a crucial 2025.
Raducanu has every intention of finishing 2024 as strongly as she can before looking ahead to the new season, though, and she can expect another tough scrap with Diana Shnaider or Marta Kostyuk - both in the top five seeds - should she stun Kasatkina on Saturday.
By virtue of entering the main draw as the top seed - thanks to the withdrawals of Elena Rybakina, Iga Swiatek and reigning champion Jessica Pegula - Kasatkina bypassed the first-round stage at the Korea Open, instead making her debut against the USA's Baptiste in Thursday's closing act.
The world number 13 experienced no major scares en route to a 6-4 6-2 victory in one hour and 17 minutes, capitalising on several serving mistakes from her American opponent to break six times in the match, albeit while also losing serve three times herself.
Incredibly, neither Kasatkina nor Baptiste won a single point behind their second serves on Thursday - the Russian double-faulted on both occasions while Baptiste did so five times - but the top seed was strong defensively throughout and made the most of some inviting drop shots from Baptiste.
The former French Open semi-finalist failed to get past round three of any major this year and has now gone over two years without a hard-court title, although she did conquer the Eastbourne grass in the summer, ending a sequence of five straight defeats in WTA Tour finals.
Should the Russian back up her top-seed status with wins over Raducanu and either Kostyuk or Shnaider, one of Beatriz Haddad Maia, Polina Kudermetova, Viktoriya Tomova or Veronika Kudermetova would stand in her way of a second WTA 500 crown of the year.
Tournament so far
Emma Raducanu:
First round: vs. Peyton Stearns 7-6[4] 7-6[5]
Second round: vs. Yue Yuan 6-4 6-3
Daria Kasatkina:
Second round: vs. Hailey Baptiste 6-4 6-2
Head To Head
Eastbourne International (2024) - Quarter-finals: Kasatkina wins 6-2 6-2
Ostrava Open (2022) - First round: Kasatkina wins 7-5 6-4
The first two meetings between Raducanu and Kasatkina at the top level have both gone the way of the Russian, who also did not drop a set against her British counterpart in either contest.
Their maiden match came in the opening round of the 2022 Ostrava Open, where Raducanu held her own before losing 7-5 6-4, but their Eastbourne tie in June was not much of a battle.
On that occasion, Kasatkina only lost four games against the wild card Raducanu, before going on to beat her 2021 US Open final opponent Leylah Fernandez in the championship match.
We say: Kasatkina to win in three sets
Raducanu's serving adjustments paid off and then some against Yuan, who was also powerless to defend against the 21-year-old's rapid second-serve returns on Thursday, particularly on the backhand side.
Kasatkina may be better-equipped to do so if her display against Baptiste is anything to go by, though, and having seen off the Brit with consummate ease at Eastbourne, we can only picture the top seed moving to 3-0 against Raducanu, even if she does drop a set this time.
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