A REMARKABLE finish which saw Australian Kimberly Birrell win the last five games of the match against American Hayley Baptiste resulted in the wildcard snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, 6-7 6-3 7-5. In a match that lasted two hours and 51 minutes, Birrell stared down the barrel of a tough Round of 16 loss at the Singapore Tennis Open, but dug deep and booked her place in the quarter finals.

Baptiste had numerous chances to win it, being three points away from victory in the eighth game, then served for the match at 5-3. Swatting away three break points after being 15-40 down, she conceded on the fourth one for Birrell to secure the break back. When the Aussie held to love in the 10th game, it was five-all and the momentum was firmly in her favour.

The American needed to hold for som ascendancy, but despite being 30-15 up, was broken after Birrell won the last three points of the penultimate game. In the last service game of the match, Birrell actually faced a break point that would have sent it to a deciding tiebreak had Baptiste won it, but instead Birrell steadied to close out the match in the last three points.

Both players are ranked similarly at 93rd (Baptiste) and 95th (Birrell), though the Aussie will move up to a career-high 85th at a minimum after her quarter finals appearance at the WTA 250 event. Her first set was a forgettable one in terms of her play, producing 21 unforced errors – including five double faults – while only hitting six winners and no aces. Remarkably, she only lost that set in a tiebreaker, then found her groove in the second.

Birrell notched up a dominance rating of 1.47, with 18 winners to only 11 unforced errors, winning 73 and 64 per cent of her first and second serve points. Though she faced less break points (four to three), she saved all four of hers, and broke Baptiste once. In the final set after being broken early and slipping to a 2-5 deficit, Birrell broke twice from five chances and was able to close out the match in just under three hours.

The Aussie takes on American Ann Li in the quarter finals of the WTA 250 event, with Li having an easier 68-minute rout of Russian lucky loser, Maria Timofeeva the night before. She had a whopping dominance rating of 1.988 and won 88 per cent of her first serve points. On form she would be favoured, though Birrell’s best can match the world number 85.

In other results, it was not as positive for the other Australians left the in the draw, with both Olivia Gadecki and qualifier Maya Joint bundled out in straight sets. The pair lost to Jil Teichmann and fourth seed Xinyu Wang, while in the other match, second seed Elise Mertens fought back from a set down to storm to victory against German Tatjana Maria, 6-7 6-3 6-1.

SINGAPORE TENNIS OPEN WTA 250 – ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

[2] Elise Mertens (BEL) defeated Tatjana Maria (GER) 6-7 6-3 6-1
[4] Xinyu Wang (CHN) defeated [Q] Maya Joint (AUS) 6-4 6-2
[WC] Kimberly Birrell (AUS”) defeated Hailey Baptiste (USA) 6-7 6-3 7-5
[Q] Jil Teichmann (SUI) defeated Olivia Gadecki (AUS) 6-4 6-4