British number one Emma Raducanu avoided a catastrophic collapse to book her spot in the last-16 of the Korea Open with a straight sets victory over Japan's Moyuka Uchijima.
The former US Open champion was knocked out of the Slovenia Open in the second round last week after struggling with a leg injury but returned to victorious ways with a 6-2 6-4 win on Wednesday.
Uchijima held to love in the opening game, but a ruthless Raduncau proceeded to win the next five games on the bounce in the opening set and only let one opportunity to break pass her by.
Raducanu would seemingly wrap up a straightforward win in no time at all after going 5-0 up in the second set, but she was broken for the first time not long after as Uchijima sought to stage a remarkable comeback.
It was the 21-year-old's turn to string a set of consecutive games together - incredibly saving two match points and winning four games on the bounce to reduce the deficit to 5-4.
However, Uchijima then crucially missed a break point which would have levelled the contest at 5-5, as Raducanu brought it back to deuce and held in a nerve-wracking final game to get over the line.
Posting a 70% win rate on her second serves compared to just 22% for Uchijima, Raducanu now prepares for battle with Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer in round two.
Ben Knapton
