British number one Emma Raducanu suffered an embarrassing 4-6 6-1 7-6 7-4 defeat to Maya Joint to crash out of the Eastbourne Open in the second round on Wednesday.
Raducanu won the first set only to see the 19-year-old Australian claim the next two, winning 11 out of the next 14 games to put herself on the brink of victory..
She almost snatched a dramatic victory from defeat, coming back when Joint had a double-break lead to take the final set into a tie-breaker.
Joint held on to secure a deserved victory and a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
The 51st ranked Australian was delighted to advance to the last eight while admitting that it was a tough encounter with Raducanu.
Joint said: “I try to hit the lines, it doesn’t always work. I’m an aggressive player, I like to use my backhand and I’m trying to learn to play on all courts.
“Today was really tough, there were a lot of ups and downs and momentum switches. I was really glad I could tough it out in the end. The atmosphere was amazing.”
Joint, who was ranked 684th in the world at the beginning of 2024 but has moved up to a career high of 51st, will face world number 69 Anna Blinkova in the last eight.
In the men’s category, Billy Harris earned a 6-3 6-4 over Mattia Bellucci, while Dan Evans sealed his second top-20 win in two weeks as he put on a grass-court clinic to shock world No 13 Tommy Paul 6-4 3-6 6-3 and advance to the quarter-finals.
The Eastbourne Open is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom.
It is classified as an ATP Tour 250 series on the ATP Tour and a WTA 250 series on the WTA Tour downgraded from WTA 500 in 2025.