Eala blasts Austria’s Grabher in her first clay test in Linz Open

ALEXANDRA “ALEX” EALA passed her first clay test this season, scoring a 6-4, 6-3 romp of home bet Julia Grabher in Round 1 of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open on Wednesday morning at the Design Center in Linz.

The 20-year-old Filipina needed just 102 minutes to overcome the challenge of Ms. Grabher, Austria’s top-ranked player and WTA No. 89, and arrange a gigantic duel against No. 4 seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.

Ms. Eala, WTA No. 46, and the 23^rd ranked Ms. Ostapenko were projected to battle late Wednesday night pending the completion of other matches.

It’s the third duel for Ms. Eala and Ms. Ostapenko in the singles division with the former surprisingly holding a 2-0 advantage over the ex-French Open champion.

Ms. Eala, then outside of Top 100, first stunned the seasoned Latvian in the Round of 64 of the Miami Open in the United States, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5, before repeating in the Lexus Eastbourne Open in England, 0-6, 6-3, 3-2. The 28-year-old Ms. Ostapenko, who’s also a doubles specialist at world No. 14, retired in the third set due to a left ankle injury.

Ms. Ostapenko however teamed up with American Hailey Baptiste in beating Ms. Eala and Iva Jovic of the United States in Round 1 of the Indian Wells Open doubles this year.

A tough duel between a rising star and a grizzled champion is expected once more with the survivor earning a shot against either No. 87 Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania or No. 49 Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine in the quarterfinals.

Ms. Eala marched on to the Round of 16 in Linz, a 500-level tourney, behind strong closeouts in both sets and another roaring support like in every city she had played in so far as one of the world tennis’ new crowd darlings.

“I’m happy with the win. I didn’t think there were so many of you Filipinos here in Linz. Thank you for the support and let’s see each other in the next match,” said Ms. Eala on her Linz debut packed with overseas Filipinos once more.

“I think it’s amazing. I’m really happy with how they welcomed me and the Filipinos here. I guess we match really well. I’m really thankful for the hospitality. I hope to discover your culture more and have some fun on the court.”

The lefty ace, who trained at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain to rev up for the clay season, owned the last two games of the first set to break away from 4-all score.

Ms. Eala rode on the momentum in building a 4-1 gap to start the second set before the 29-year-old Ms. Grabher managed to strike within 3-4 after breaking Ms. Eala’s serve.

The Filipina pride went on to score back-to-back wins once again for a full display of her immense composure that should serve handy for the rest of her clay campaign.

After Linz, up next for Ms. Eala is the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany on April 13 to 19 before returning to the Mutua Madrid Open in Spain on April 21 to May 3. Both are 1000-level tours leading up to the queen of clay courts that is the French Open on May 24 to June 7.

In Stuttgart, Ms. Eala has advanced to the main draw as announced by the organizers after being chosen to take the seat of Paris Olympic gold medalist and No. 37 Qinwen Zheng of China due to injury.

“Unfortunately, Ms. Qinwen has to withdraw due to injury but fans can now look forward to seeing Alexandra step in,” said the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Wednesday. — John Bryan Ulanday