British No. 3 Francesca Jones reached the quarter-finals of the ASB Classic in Auckland after a comeback victory over Austrian qualifier Sinja Kraus, following her career-best win over world No. 15 Emma Navarro earlier in the week.
Jones lost the first set in just half an hour and trailed 3-0 in the second before winning 12 of the last 14 games to seal a 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory. It is her fourth tour-level quarter-final.
“I tried to take myself out of the situation a little bit, forget what was happening, and try and start new,” Jones said. “Just make it tougher, use my experience. But the conditions are so different during the day in comparison to the night, and it took me a while to get used to it.”
The world No. 72 stunned Navarro in the first round – her first match against a top-20 player. Navarro, a former US Open semi-finalist and daughter of billionaire Ben Navarro, is now on a three-match losing streak.
Jones will face No. 7 seed Wang Xinyu for a place in her third tour-level semi-final. Fellow Brits Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal also progressed in Auckland; Boulter meets top seed Elina Svitolina, while Kartal advanced to the last 16.
