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• Raducanu roars through to Korea Open quarter-finals

  Emma Raducanu booked her place in the Korea Open quarter-finals with a straight-sets victory over Yue Yuan.

  The former US Open champion wrapped up a 6-4 6-3 win in just over two hours in Seoul, where she will play either top seed Daria Kasatkina or Hailey Baptiste.

  Yue, who was runner-up in this event 12 months ago, recovered an early break to hold a slender 4-3 lead in the opening set.

  However, Raducanu took control with a run of six successive games to draw first blood, before taking control of the second set with a double-break for 3-0.

  Yue fought back to 3-2, but saw a break point go begging in the following game as the Briton eventually held to remain in command. 

  Raducanu had to be patient as her opponent saved five match points to break in game eight, but the world number 70 eventually converted her seventh for victory.

  Data Debrief: Raducanu roars into last eight

  Raducanu has spoken of how she intends to "thrive in Asia" and she is in a good position to do that after reaching her fifth quarter-final of 2024.

  The Briton certainly dominated on the serving front as she hammered 11 aces without reply, while also converting six out of nine break points.

• Hingst wants Ballon d'Or to move away from 'superstar' preference after Putellas nomination

  World Cup winner Ariane Hingst believes the Ballon d'Or Feminin must reconsider who merits the global award in order to do "justice to the great football players".

  Former Germany international Hingst, speaking at the Thinking Football Summit organised by Liga Portugal, could not fathom the reasoning behind including the likes of injury-hit Alexia Putellas as a nominee.

  The 30-player list was announced at the start of September, with the winner revealed later in October, as Aitana Bonmati heads to the award ceremony in Paris as the favourite.

  Spain's Nations League success saw five of their players nominated, including Bonmati, while the United States women's national team also had as many nominees after their Olympic success in the French capital.

  Hingst, winner of FIFA's top international competition in 2003 and 2007, believes the Ballon d'Or needs to look further than "superstars", however.

  "It's always interesting to see the nominees of these Ballon d'Ors," Hingst said to Stats Perform. "I think the problem is that you only have the big picture when you have a big tournament going on. 

  "We had the Olympics, but you see all kinds of sports, so you can't just follow the football, so it's hard to follow.

  "What frustrates me the most is, and don't get me wrong, the likes of Alexia Putellas, [she is] a great, great player, but she's been injured for such a long time and is on the list to be the best of this season.

  "This can't be right and I don't think that it does justice to the great football players we have out there if Putellas is on this list as well.

  "We need to get away from the superstars and just recognise the season that has been played."

  Though wanting to stray away from the "superstar" tag for Ballon d'Or selection, Hingst reserved special praise for Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr.

  "The interesting part is, that I always had a problem with just this one big superstar because soccer is a team sport and it took me some time to realise that you need those superstars," Hingst added.

  "Definitely, Sam Kerr is one of them. It took some time for us in Germany to recognise her as much. She became really big when she was in America, an absolute superstar.

  "Now then going to England and it's just tremendous. You need those figures because they are idols. Girls are talking about, 'I want to be Sam Kerr', the boys are talking about her, so you need those big names.

  "For example, now you have Alex Morgan just retiring from the women's game. She was one of those superstars as well. [Megan] Rapinoe from America also retired. So who's the next?"

• Raducanu fights through tough Stearns test to progress in Seoul

  Emma Raducanu dug deep to grind out a marathon straight-sets victory over Peyton Stearns to progress at the Korea Open on Tuesday.

  The Brit, who reached the semi-finals in 2022, needed two tie-breaks to win, holding off Stearns 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) in two hours and 46 minutes.

  The play was delayed for 45 minutes due to excessive heat before the pair traded breaks in the opening three games, with Raducanu at one point holding a 4-1 lead before Stearns fought back to force the first tie-break.

  Raducanu prevailed but was put straight back under pressure in a lengthy opening game of the second set, saving break point three times to get off the mark.

  There was little to separate the two throughout though, as they continued to trade breaks before the 2021 US Open champion found her edge again to take the tie-break.

  She will face last year's Korea Open runner-up Yuan Yue in the next round. 

  Data Debrief: Going the distance

  Raducanu was playing her first match since being knocked out of the US Open, and she was certainly made to work for the victory.

  It featured a combined tally of 28 break points and 12 breaks of serve, with eight of those coming in a topsy-turvy first set.

  Raducanu successfully saved nine of 15 break points compared to seven of 13 for Stearns.