Teenager Maya Joint is eyeing the "crazy" prospect of being a seeded danger woman at her home Grand Slam event after making yet another semifinal in her breakthrough year in Hong Kong.
The soaring 19-year-old, who's already landed her first two career titles this year and became Australian No.1 last week, continued her triumphant progress on Friday by overcoming a tough challenge from Japanese qualifier Himeno Sakatsume.
The 6-4 2-6 6-4 win booked Joint a fifth semifinal in her last individual tournament of the season.
There she'll face Cristina Bucsa on Saturday, with a golden opportunity to make another final by defeating the Moldovan-born Spaniard, ranked No.56 in the world.
In another WTA 250 event in India at the Chennai Open, former Australian No.1 Kim Birrell also made it to the semifinals with a 6-4 6-0 victory over Croatian third seed Donna Vekic, the 2024 Wimbledon semifinalist.
The win set up a semifinal date with Chinese Taipei’s Joanna Garland, who ended the hopes of another Australian, Arina Rodionova, in the quarterfinals with a 6-2 7-6(2) win.
Birrell, the No.7 seed, rises 14 places in the WTA live rankings to world No.103, as she seeks to ensure direct entry into the Australian Open 2026 main draw.
Her semifinal run in Chennai surpasses her previous season-best performances, which came with quarterfinal finishes at the Brisbane International and in Singapore.
It also marked her second career win over Vekic, almost seven years after beating the Croatian to reach the third round at Australian Open 2019.
Joint, meanwhile, has managed to sidestep top seed Belinda Bencic, who had to pull out injured before her quarterfinal with Bucsa.
Now up to world No.32, Joint, who started the year at 116th, knows that top-32 position would ensure her a place as a seeded player in next year's Australian Open.
"It's been crazy, I didn't expect all this to happen so quickly," she told reporters in Hong Kong.
"It was always a goal of mine to be one of the top players in the world but it's still hard to imagine that I am where I am.
"I'm really excited about it all; I really hope I'm going to be seeded for the Australian Open next year, but it's been unbelievable."
Being a Grand Slam seed looks likely the way she keeps progressing.
A third title this weekend – which would be on third different surface – would almost guarantee it as she'd rocket into the world's top-25 before spearheading Australia's Bille Jean King Cup team's Play-off ties against Brazil and Portugal in Hobart in a fortnight.
But Joint didn't have things all her own way against Sakatsume, the world No.228 who'd already pulled off a huge shock earlier in the championships by knocking out fourth seed Sofia Kenin, the Australian Open 2020 champ.
Joint won four straight games and produced a glorious winner to take the opening set, but her form dipped in the second.
"I was getting a bit anxious and thinking I'd lost my backhand, which is usually my strength. I just needed to mentally reset and tell myself it's not true," she revealed.
It also helped that the youngster has been working with a mental coach who's given Joint strategies to stay calm in the tough moments, and she regrouped to earn a decisive break in the fifth game of the final set.
The other Hong Kong semi will be an all-Canadian affair between their two young stars, third seed Victoria Mboko and 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez, the No.2 seed.