FILIPINO tennis ace Alexandra “Alex” Eala eyes a quarterfinals (QF) berth at the Abu Dhabi Open as she faces Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.
The round of 16 match between World No. 45 Eala and No. 109 Sasnovich is likely set late at night in Manila.
Eala dropped World No. 79 Zeynep Sönmez of Turkey, 6-4, 6-3, in the round of 32 early Tuesday to seize her first win in Abu Dhabi.
Eala made her debut at the WTA 500 tournament two years ago and got eliminated in the first round by Polish Magda Linette, 6-7, 1-6.
Like at the Australian Open, Eala enjoyed another de facto home crowd as a loud Filipino diaspora went to support the lefty netter in her match against Sönmez.
“Good evening fellow Filipinos. Thank you for your support and let’s see each other in the second round,” said Eala, addressing the Filipino crowd in Filipino.
On the other hand, Sasnovich defeated World No. 65 Paula Badosa in their round of 32 clash Monday night, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
It’s another youth vs experience theme for the 20-year-old Eala as she faces the 31-year-old Sasnovich.
Sasnovich had a career-best 29th in the rankings.
Eala was set to see action in the doubles side with fellow Southeast Asian Janice Tjen of Indonesia Tuesday night.
Eala and Tjen were set to face the Canadian-French duo of Leylah Fernandez and Kristina Mladenovic in the opener (round of 16).
Tjen also opened her singles campaign with a win, topping Australian Maya Join in three sets on Monday, 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-3.
Meanwhile, Eala rose from 45th to 43rd at the WTA live rankings following her first-round win.
Eala climbed from 49th to a new career-high 45th with 1,163 points in the official rankings on Monday.
In the live rankings, 33 points was the net gain for Eala, which means she had 27 in the same tournament week or day last year.
Those 27 points already dropped off and were replaced by 60 and thus the net gain of 33.
Eala has a total of 1196 points.
The 20-year-old Eala also secured a prize money of $18,045 or more than P1 million for her round of 32 win.