DISPLAYING the grit and resiliency that she sorely lacked in her previous outings, Alex Eala rallied Sunday night (Sunday afternoon in England) for a hard-earned 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-4) win over American qualifying top seed Haylie Baptiste to enter the main draw of the Lexus Eastbourne Open in Eastbourne, England.
After a stinging first-set loss, Eala found her second wind in the next two games and finally sent the fading Baptiste, ranked No. 56 in the world, packing with a dominant third set after two hours and 37 minutes of action at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club located 126.7 kilometers southeast of London.
Competing in a WTA 250 tournament, Eala, who rose three rungs in the Women’s Tennis Association world ratings to No. 74 yesterday, earlier hurdled the first qualifying round last Saturday, whipping former Turkish doubles teammate Zeynek Sonmez 6-1, 6-3 in one hour and 12 minutes of play.
She was scheduled to face Italian veteran Lucia Bronzetti, 26, ranked No. 61 in the world, in the first round of the tournament last night.
Like a steam engine, Eala started cold and fell into a 0-3 hole in the opening set before charging back to tie the count at 3-all, winning the fourth to sixth games.
Baptiste, 23, who reached the fourth round of the recent French Open, surged ahead 5-3, having broken the Pinay netter in the eighth game, only to see Eala rally anew to wrest the lead at 6-5.
The burly American refused to yield and tied the count at 6-all before overpowering her rival in the tie-breaker 7-1.
In the second set, Eala was more in command of her game, forging ahead 4-2 with a critical service break in the sixth game, but was broken herself in the next for 4-3, as Baptiste held her own in the eighth to force the first deadlock at 4-all.
The pretty Pinay moved to the cusp of equalizing the match at 1 set each, finally holding serve for a 5-4 margin, breaking the American in the ninth, but Baptiste countered with a service break of her own, holding off two set points, forcing 5-all and 6-all standoffs.
This time, it was Eala who stormed to a 5-1 lead in the tie-breaker, was threatened by Baptiste at 4-5, before taking the last two points to extend the match to an extra set.
With Baptiste looking fatigued after the first two sets that went the distance, the Filipina southpaw raised her game to another level to erect an imposing 5-0 lead, spiked by service breaks in the first, third and fifth games.
Over a three-game stretch from the third to the fifth, Eala limited the American to just one point in seizing control on the way to defeating a higher-ranked opponent for the first time in recent encounters.
