OVERCOMING a medical timeout due to apparent cramps and stiff resistance, both in the second set, top seed Alex Eala subdued upset-conscious Aliona Falei of Belarus 6-3, 7-5 in her Jinghan Tennis Open women’s singles debut yesterday in Jingshan, China.
Against an opponent ranked a lowly No. 322 in the Women’s Tennis Association world rankings, Eala, 20, ranked No. 58, found a fight on her hands in the second set against the feisty Falei, 21, before finishing off her foe in one hour and 51 minutes at the Jingshan International Tennis Center.
In the first meeting between the two youthful netters, who traded service breaks from the sixth game up in the second frame, the Filipina finally found her groove by holding serve at 40-love in the 12th and final game of the last set to secure the first-round triumph.
Fresh from a much-needed break back home after a tough Central and South American swing more than two weeks ago, Eala will face Japanese Mei Yamaguchi, who whipped Hong Kong’s Hong Yi Cody Wong 6-4, 6-1 in their own first-round tussle, in the second round.
Looking cute and dainty in an all-pink outfit down to her shoes, Eala seemed ready to dispatch her Belarusian opponent with ease after surging to an early 3-0 lead in the first set before Falei was able to win one game, holding serve in the fourth to draw closer at 1-3.
The pretty Pinay southpaw built a 5-2 lead before her rival was able to hold serve again in the eighth game to trail at 3-5, only for Eala to slam the door shut at 40-15 in the next one to secure the set in just 39 minutes at the arena whose membrane roof is shaped like two overlapping scallop shells.
Everything seemed to be going well in the second set for Eala, who was up 3-2 when she called for a medical timeout in what looked like the early onset of cramps on her right leg, lying down on the court for treatment, then sitting down on her stool to do some leg-stretching.
Returning to the court after the three-minute medical break, the top pick got broken by Falei in the sixth game, and it was touch-and-go the rest of the way for the two protagonists, who fought to three deadlocks, the last at 5-all.
Eala broke Falei for the fourth and last time to gain a 6-5 edge in the 11th game at 15-40 as a result of the latter’s 10th and final double fault.
This was the opening that Filipina needed in finally securing the second set, winning the next four points to move on to the next round of the competition offering 125 WTA ranking points and $15,500 (around P885,000) to the champion.
Statistics posted on the WTA website showed that Eala won the match with a better percentage on second serve points won – 11 out of 21 – for a 52.4 percent clip in contrast to the meager 19 percent of Falei (4/21), and had only two double faults compared to her rival’s 10.
