Karolina Muchova continued her fine start to the WTA 500 tournament in Tokyo after ousting rising star Maya Joint 6-3 7-5 to reach the quarterfinal.
Joint, who became a WTA champion in Eastbourne during the summer and currently enjoys a career-high ranking of No. 32 in the world, took the opening two games of the match. However, the 19-year-old's lead was short-lived as the eighth-seeded Czech responded by winning six of the next seven games to overcome an early deficit and bag the opener.
Just as was the case in the first set, Joint went up by a break in the second set but Muchova stormed back to claim it and complete the job in two sets.
Before beating Joint, the 2023 French Open finalist was also 6-2 1-0 up against Marketa Vondrousova before the 2024 Wimbledon winner retired due to an injury.
Muchova is now set for her fourth quarterfinal of the year, and the first one since the US Open.
Who is Muchova's next rival in Tokyo?
For a place in the Tokyo semifinal, Muchova will battle against the winner of the match between Belinda Bencic and Varvara Gracheva. If Bencic wins as expected, she and the Czech tennis star will meet for the fifth time. The head-to-head between them stands at 2-2.
Meanwhile, in other results from Tokyo, Linda Noskova came back from a set down to beat McCartney Kessler 5-7 6-3 6-4, while Victoria Mboko claimed her first back-to-back wins at a tournament since Montreal after dismantling Eva Lys 6-1 6-1. Anna Kalinskaya also progressed into the Tokyo quarterfinal after edging out Diana Shnaider 7-6 (4) 2-6 7-6 (5).
