{"id":256255,"date":"2025-11-01T21:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T21:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/256255\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T21:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T21:49:07","slug":"australian-number-one-maya-joint-loses-in-hong-kong-open-semis-kim-birrell-through-to-chennai-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/256255\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian number one Maya Joint loses in Hong Kong Open semis, Kim Birrell through to Chennai final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Australian teenager Maya Joint has fallen short of reaching the Hong Kong Open final after she was surprisingly beaten in straight sets by Cristina Buc\u0219a.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Although it was a disappointing result for Joint, Buc\u0219a produced an impressive performance to beat the Australian women&#8217;s number one, 6-3, 6-1, and advance to her first WTA 250 final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">There was better news for one of Joint&#8217;s predecessors as the top-ranked Australian player, Kimberly Birrell won the longest match of her career, defeating Taiwanese Joanna Garland, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 7-5, to reach the Chennai Open final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Joint, 19, has enjoyed a stellar year, highlighted by tournament wins in Rabat and Eastbourne.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">She was favourite to beat the 68th-ranked Buc\u0219a on Saturday and led 3-2 after five games without a break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">But Spaniard Buc\u0219a reeled off the next seven games on her way to wrapping up victory in just 58 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The defeat was a rare setback for US-born Joint, who has soared from outside the top 100 to number 32 in the world this season.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-11-01\/alex-de-minaur-upset-by-familiar-foe-again-in-paris\/105960540\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">De Minaur upset by familiar foe<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Alex de Minaur suffers another nightmarish defeat in Paris at the hands of his old tormentor Alexander Bublik.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Joint will be vying for a seeding spot at January&#8217;s Australian Open.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Third seed Victoria Mboko won an all-Canadian clash in the second semifinal when she defeated second-seeded Leylah Fernandez, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">In Chennai, Birrell followed up her victory over Croatian third seed Donna Veki\u0107 with a monumental performance against Garland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Birrell saved four match points before completing victory in three hours and 19 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">She will face Indonesian fourth-seeded Janice Tjen in the final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian teenager Maya Joint has fallen short of reaching the Hong Kong Open final after she was surprisingly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,147831,63023,31229,9738,85,747,26599],"class_list":["post-256255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cristina-bucsa","tag-hong-kong-open","tag-maya-joint","tag-semifinals","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-wta-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}