Alex Eala delivered a superb all-around performance to overwhelm Croatia’s Petra Marcinko, 6-0, 6-2, in the second round of the WTA ASB Classic on Thursday at Centre Court of the Manuka Doctor Arena in Auckland, New Zealand.
Eala stayed sharp despite the windy conditions, in what turned out to be a surprisingly one-sided encounter between two 20-year-olds who were once among the world’s top junior players.
Marcinko came into the match with momentum after an impressive opening-round victory, where she rebounded from a second-set bagel to defeat former world No. 33 Camila Osorio of Colombia in three sets.
However, bouncing back from a bagel against former world junior No. 2 Eala proved to be an entirely different challenge.
The fourth-seeded Eala faced little resistance in the opening set, breaking Marcinko three times to blank the former world junior No. 1 in just 22 minutes, 6-0.
Marcinko finally got on the board in the second set by holding serve in the second game. She briefly seized momentum by breaking Eala in the following game to take a 2-1 lead — her first and only advantage of the match.
From there, Eala quickly reasserted control, reeling off the next four games to close out the contest in one hour and three minutes and secure a spot in the quarterfinals.
Eala will also advance to the doubles semifinals on Friday after she and American partner Iva Jovic were awarded a walkover following the withdrawal of Renata Zarazúa of Mexico and Jesika Malečková of the Czech Republic.
Eala and Jovic will next face the tournament’s third seeds, former Wimbledon and US Open finalist Xu Yifan and former world No. 9 Yang Zhaoxuan of China.
The winners will earn a berth in the finals against former world doubles No. 1 Kristina Mladenovic of France and world No. 22 Guo Hanyu of China.
