![\"Talia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aap.com.au\/9739b01ae0a753dde72dad3b4cce6e30.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nMaya Joint has made a mockery of the tennis rankings with an impressive display to uproot one of the top seeds at the Pan Pacific Open event in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
Ranked a career-high No.28 in February, the Australian’s stocks have dropped steadily throughout the year and she entered this WTA 500 event ranked 94th.<\/p>\n
However, the American-born Aussie showed the numbers can’t always be trusted as she powered past sixth seed and world No.16 Sorana Cirstea of Romania.<\/p>\n
Joint’s impressive 6-3 7-6 (7-4) victory on Tuesday secured her a spot in the round of 16.<\/p>\n
It also continued her recent resurgence, after she made the final at last month’s Korea Open in Seoul, where compatriot Kim Birrell claimed her first WTA title with a 6-4 6-2 win in the final.<\/p>\n
Joint’s next opponent is Spanish world No.42 Cristina Bucsa, who beat France’s Diane Parry 7-5 6-1 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
And Joint isn’t the only in-form Australian still in the main draw.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Talia Gibson, who recently reached the Singapore final, came through an all-Australian affair over qualifier Daria Kasatkina 6-0 7-5.<\/p>\n
Gibson powered through the first eight games in a row but was made to work hard to hold off the former world No.8 in the second set.<\/p>\n
Her reward is a round-of-16 clash with eight-seeded Aleandra Eala, of the Philippines.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eala won the battle of former US Open junior champions, easing past 17-year-old British wildcard Mika Stojsavljevic 6-1 6-2 in just 75 minutes.<\/p>\n
The popular Philippines player claimed the girls’ title at Flushing Meadows in 2022, two years before Stojsavljevic lifted the trophy.<\/p>\n
The Tokyo event has been hit hard by injuries, with two of the tournament’s biggest names withdrawing.<\/p>\n
Poland’s Maja Chwalinska, the No.2 seed, and Switzerland’s Belinda Benic, seeded fourth, both pulled out before the tournament kicked off.<\/p>\n
Chwalinska, who won her first career WTA title in Wuhan two weeks ago, pulled out with a left thigh injury.<\/p>\n
And injury also brought an early end to the season for Bencic, who suffered partial tears of the tibiofibular (syndesmotic) ligament in her right foot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maya Joint has made a mockery of the tennis rankings with an impressive display to uproot one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-942526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942526","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=942526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}