After producing surprising results on Wednesday, Maya Joint and Alexandra Eala are unlikely quarterfinalists at the Lexus Eastbourne Open.

Joint came back to defeat British favorite Emma Raducanu 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club — only her second career win on grass at the Hologic WTA Tour level. In the first round, the 19-year-old Australian made headlines when she upset two-time Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur.

Joint plays Anna Blinkova, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Lulu Sun, on Thursday. Sun knocked off No. 1 seed Daria Kasatkina in the first round.

Later, Eala — a 20-year-old qualifier from the Philippines — fashioned a similar upset, when No. 3 seed Jelena Ostapenko retired (left foot injury) with the score 0-6, 6-2, 3-2. Eala meets the winner of the later match between Dayana Yastremska and British wild card Francesca Jones.

Joint, already up to No. 51 in the PIF WTA Rankings, was at No. 119 at the end of 2024, but now has 15 match-wins in 2025 and took the title in Rabat. While this was her third career win over a Top 50 player, it also happened to vault her into the Top 50 herself.

“I didn’t actually know that so … thanks,” Joint said to the WTA Tour communications staffer who informed her. “It’s really exciting. I have gotten a lot of questions about rankings, but I usually don’t look at it. It’s nice to see the number go up, obviously.”

Like most British players, Raducanu is proficient on grass. In addition to the quarterfinals here, she advanced to the semifinals in Nottingham and the fourth round at Wimbledon a year ago. She dropped the opening set of her first-round match against Ann Li, but came back to win 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1.

Joint, on the other hand, is new to grass and found herself sprawled on the ground on several occasions. In the end, it didn’t matter.

The first set featured five breaks of serve, but the last one — with Joint serving at 4-all — proved fatal. Raducanu wrapped up the set with a terrific backhand that clipped the baseline.

Raducanu’s serve dropped off in the second set with Joint scoring two breaks to force the deciding frame. Joint broke Raducanu’s serve to open the third set and needed to save three break points to maintain a 4-2 lead. With another break, it was 5-2 and Joint served for the match.

Raducanu had other ideas, though, and narrowed it to 5-3. Serving for the match a second time, Joint was broken and it was suddenly 5-all.

After the two traded breaks, it went to a match tiebreak. At 4-all, Raducanu’s drop shot hit the net chord and fell back. Joint followed it with a backhand on the line that Raducanu couldn’t corral and, with one final flourish, an ace down the middle.

The victory avenged Raducanu’s three-set win — that ran 2 hours and 44 minutes — earlier this spring in the first round at Rome.

“I definitely try to hit the lines — doesn’t always work,” Joint said. “So I’m glad it worked today. I’m an aggressive player, I like to use my backhand.

“I just tried to commit on every shot and be aggressive, hit through the wind. Grass is interesting that way — if you hit one good shot the rally can turn. The grass season’s not that long, so being prepared for Wimbledon is very important.”