ALEX Eala showed tremendous fighting spirit to beat highly touted Donna Vekić of Croatia in the opening round of the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand on Tuesday (Philippine time), Jan 6.

The Filipina tennis sensation, ranked No. 53 in the world, pulled off a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win to book a seat in the Round of 16.

Vekic, ranked lower than Eala by 16 notches, showed why she is Paris Olympic silver medalist when she dominated the opening set despite falling into a 0-3 deficit.

However, Eala, coming off a stellar win in the doubles event with American partner Iva Jovic, found her groove in the second set to tie the match.

The 20-year-old Eala, seeded fourth in the tournament,

sustained the momentum in ther deciding set en route to forging a Round of 16 date with another Croatian opponent in Petra Marcinko.

Marcinko barged into the next round by escaping Camila Osorio, 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 (2), in their Round of 32 duel.

Eala and Jovic previously advanced to the Round of 16 in the doubles event after beating multiple Grand Slam champions Venus Williams and Elina Svitolina last Monday.

Williams, a former world No. 1, couldn’t recover from the doubles debacle as she bowed to fifth seed Magda Linette, 4-6, 6-4, 2-6, in the opening round.

Williams’ loss prevented a potential quarterfinal duel with Eala.(CCM)

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