Eala takes down higher-ranked foe, moves to Final 16 of Dubai tilt

Sports

ALEX Eala fell several notches in the latest Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings but is expected to go up once again after pulling off a big win in the WTA 1000 Dubai Tennis Championships in the UAE early Wednesday morning (Philippine time), Feb. 18 in the United Arab Emirates.

The 20-year-old shocked world No. 8 Italian Jasmine Paolini, 6-1, 7-6 (7), to book a seat in the Round of 16.

After a quick 6-4, 0-1 win in the Round of 64 against American Hailey Baptiste, who retired ealy in the second set due to an abdominal injury, Eala showed tremendous composure to upend the 30-year-old Paolini in one hour and 40 minutes.

Eala displayed steely nerves in the tiebreak that saw her save two set points that prevented the thrilling match from going to a deciding third set and complete what is by far her biggest win of the year.

Eala is competing in her sixth tournament of the year.

With the huge win over Paolini, Eala forged a rematch against No. 32 Sorana Cirstea of Romania, who hacked out her own resounding Round of 32 win by beating No. 14 Linda Noskova, 6-1, 6-4.

Eala will be looking to score some sort of revenge as she lost to Cirstea in the second round of the WTA 1000 Madrid Open two years ago, 6-3, 6-7, 4-6.

Eala’s big win came after she dropped to No. 47 in the latest WTA rankings. She came into the ongoing tournament at 40th spot.

With 1,227 points, Eala is trailing Janice Tjen, who is at No. 46 with 1,236.

Comprising the Top 5 are Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (10,870), Polish Iga Swiatek (7,803), Kazakh Elena Rybakina (7,523), and Americans Coco Gauff (6,423), and Jessica Pegula (5,888).(CCM)