Alex Eala lived up to her billing as the top seed, opening her WTA 125 Jingshan Open campaign with a solid victory despite an early injury scare.
The 20-year-old Filipina tennis ace dispatched 21-year-old Aliona Falei of Belarus, 6-3, 7-5, in the opening round on Tuesday at Center Court of the Jingshan International Tennis Tournament Center in Hubei, China.
Fresh from a brief home trip to Manila following her semifinal finish at the WTA 250 São Paulo Open in Brazil, Eala displayed renewed energy and sharp shotmaking to counter the powerful groundstrokes of Falei, a five-time ITF singles champion.
World No. 57 Eala quickly stormed to a 3-0 lead in the first set and nearly extended it to 4-0 after earning four break points.
Falei, however, managed to hold serve for 3-1. That was as close as the Belarusian would get, with both players holding serve the rest of the way before Eala closed out the opener, 6-3.
The second set proved to be a tighter battle. Although World No. 322 Falei immediately dropped serve to trail 0-2, she broke back in the fourth game to level the score at 2-2.
Eala regained the advantage with a break in the fifth game but was forced to take a lengthy medical timeout for treatment shortly after.
Sensing an opportunity, Falei broke again to tie the set at 3-all.
What followed was a chaotic stretch of five consecutive service breaks.
Eala, however, steadied herself at the crucial moment, holding serve at love in the twelfth game to seal the match and end Falei’s tournament run.
Though decided in straight sets, the match lasted an hour and 52 minutes, underscoring how closely contested the encounter was.
Eala will look to recover quickly as she faces Japanese veteran Mei Yamaguchi in the second round on Wednesday.
The Filipina rising star also had the option of competing at the WTA 1000 Beijing Open this week, where she was slated to replace World No. 1 and recent US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka following the latter’s withdrawal.
However, Eala was already in Jingshan when news of her Beijing main draw entry was announced, prompting her to stay and focus on the tournament in China.
