On Tuesday, Alex Eala moved to 2-1 in her head-to-head against Priscilla Hon after dispatching the Australian in straight sets in just 59 minutes.
Eala did the same on Thursday, improving to 2-1 in her matchup against Alina Charaeva with a hard-fought 6-2, 7-5 victory in their second-round clash at the 2026 Lexus Birmingham Open.
The unseeded Charaeva came in riding momentum from an impressive opening-round win, where she knocked out last year’s runner-up Greet Minnen of Belgium in straight sets.
However, she found that world No. 37 Eala is operating on a different level compared to Minnen.
Top seed Eala immediately asserted control on the grass of the Edgbaston Priory Club’s Centre Court, racing to a 4-0 lead in the opening set.
The 24-year-old Charaeva briefly responded, taking two of the next three games to stay within reach at 5-2, but Eala refused to let the set slip away, closing it out in the eighth game after 36 minutes.
The second set saw a more aggressive Charaeva pushing to level the match. From a 2-2 deadlock, the Russian broke Eala in the sixth game and surged to what looked like an insurmountable 5-2 advantage.
But Eala once again showed her resilience, finding another gear to win five straight games and complete a second consecutive straight-sets victory.
Eala and Charaeva first met at the ITF W15 Internacional Femenino Melilla Sport Capital in Spain in 2020, where a 15-year-old Eala fell 6-3, 6-3 to the then 18-year-old, seventh-seeded Russian in the first round.
Eala exacted revenge last January at the WTA 125 Philippine Open, defeating Charaeva 6-1, 6-2 in the opening round.
Eala now advances to the quarterfinals, where she will face Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand, the player she defeated for the SEA Games women’s singles gold medal last December.
