Eala blasts Austria’s Grabher in her first clay court test at the Linz Open
ALEXANDRA “ALEX” EALA passed her first clay court test of the season, taking home seed Julia Grabher 6-4, 6-3 in Round 1 of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open on Wednesday morning at the Design Center in Linz.
The 20-year-old Filipina needed just 102 minutes to overcome the challenge of Ms Grabher, the top-ranked Austrian and WTA No. 89, and plan a big fight against No.
Ms. Eala, WTA No. 46, and 23rd who is ranked in Ms. Ostapenko’s place was expected to fight on Wednesday night pending the completion of other matches.
The third duel of Ms. Eala and Ms Ostapenko in the singles with the former holding an impressive 2-0 lead over the former French Open champion.
Ms Eala, who was outside the Top 100, first stunned the experienced Latvian in the Round of 64 at the Miami Open in the United States, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5, before repeating at the Lexus Eastbourne Open in England, 0-6, 6-3, 3-2. The 28-year-old Ms Ostapenko, who is also a doubles specialist at world No. 14, retired in the third set with a left ankle injury.
Ms Ostapenko however partnered with American Hailey Baptiste to defeat Ms Eala and Iva Jovic of the United States in Round 1 of the Indian Wells Open twice this year.
It is expected to be another tough battle between the rising star and the grizzled champion when the survivor gets a shot against the No. 87 Elena-Gabriela Ruse from Romania or No. 49 Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine in the quarterfinals.
Mrs. Eala advanced to the Round of 16 in Linz, a level 500 tournament, after very close places in both sets and some roaring support as in every city he has played in so far as one of the new darlings of the tennis world.
“I’m happy to win. I didn’t think there were so many Filipinos here in Linz. Thank you for your support and we’ll see each other in the next game,” said Ms. Eala at his start in Linz is full of Filipinos abroad as well.
“I think it’s amazing. I’m very happy with the way they welcomed me and the Filipino people here. I think we match very well. I’m very grateful for the hospitality. I hope to experience your culture more and have fun on the field.”
The lefty ace, who trained at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain to revive the clay season, held the last two games of the first set to break from 4-all points.
Mrs. Eala rode the momentum to build a 4-1 gap to start the second set before the 29-year-old Ms Grabher managed to break within 3-4 after breaking Ms Eala’s serve.
The pride of the Filipina went on to score back-to-back wins again to show her great composure that should help her throughout her clay campaign.
After Linz, Ms. Next up is the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany from April 13 to 19 before returning to the Mutua Madrid Open in Spain from April 21 to May 3. Both are 1000-ranked tournaments leading up to the queen of clay courts that is the French Open on May 7.
In Stuttgart, Mrs. Eala has advanced to the main event as announced by the organizers after being selected to replace Paris Olympic gold medalist and 37th China’s Qinwen Zheng due to injury.
“Unfortunately, Ms. Qinwen has to withdraw due to injury, but the fans can look forward to seeing Alexandra enter,” said the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Wednesday. – John Bryan Ulanday
