Alexandra Eala put her true grit on display in Hong Kong on Thursday, coming through a roller-coaster battle to earn her first career win over Tereza Valentova.
Eala saved nine of ten break points in the opening set before finally breaking through at love in the tenth game to take it 6-4 against the 19-year-old talent from Prague.
The feisty Filipina then rallied twice from a break down in the second set and finally converted her fourth match point to clinch a hard-fought 6-4, 7-6(7) win and a spot in the Hong Kong quarterfinals.
“It was so tough. It was really, really tough,” Eala said. “I think Tereza played incredibly, and we were able to bring the match to a really high level. And I think that was reflected with all of the scores.
“I’m really happy with that win. I think I escaped by a little bit.”
No. 85-ranked Valentova entered Thursday’s clash with a 2-0 record against Eala, despite being 68 spots behind the 21-year-old in the rankings.
“You don’t go into battle without a plan,” Eala said. “Of course, the previous two meetings were super difficult, so I knew it was going to be a tough battle.
“I just tried to be better than the previous time that we met.”
Valentova shook off the disappointment of dropping the first set and served for the second set at 5-4, but she ran into a wall there as well. Eala, with heavy strapping around her right knee and upper leg, used her forehand to earn two break points, and broke to level at 5-all on the next point.
Eala led 5-1 in the tiebreak before Valentova fought back to 6-all, saving two match points. She saved another at 6-7, but could not avoid defeat on a fourth.
How did Eala manage to keep her cool in such a tense contest?
“I don’t really know. I think it was a long second set, long tiebreak for sure, but just focusing on the next point.”
In the end, Valentova converted three of her 12 break points and hit 29 winners, while Eala converted all four of her break points and hit 18 winners in the one-hour, 56-minute contest.
Eala joins top-seeded Sorana Cirstea and No. 4 seed Maria Sakkari in the last eight of the 250-level event. She will face Croatia’s Antonia Ruzic next.
Cirstea took out Mary Stoiana, 7-5, 6-1, while Zeynep Sonmez also advanced, defeating Mika Stojsavljevic 7-6(5), 6-4.
Another win in Hong Kong will vault Eala ahead of Naomi Osaka and into a career-high position at No. 16 in the world.
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