Alex Eala advances to Round of 16 of Hong Kong Open after Boulter injury

Alexandra "Alex" Eala advanced to the next round after defeating Katie Boulter of Great Britain, 6-4, 2-1 following a retirement due to injury in their Round of 32 match in the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open on Tuesday in Hong Kong, China.

The Filipina tennis star, who reached a new career-high WTA ranking of no. 51 ahead of the tournament, will move onto the Round of 16, where she will face tournament No. 3 seed Victoria Mboko of Canada, who is ranked No. 21 in the world.

In the first set, Boulter, who once had a career-high no. 23 in the world rankings, won back-to-back games in the opening frame to tie things up at 4-4.  But Eala battled back and won the next two games, including the lengthy 10th game where she clinched multiple match points to draw first blood after a 56-minutes Set 1 clash. 

The match ended in the second set with Eala ahead two games to one before an injury caused Boulter to retire from the contest.

 

 

 

 

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The Hong Kong Open, a WTA 250 tournament, serves as Eala’s final event of the season.

Still in the tournament are former Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, Filipino-Canadian player Leylah Fernandez, and Australian Maya Joint, who defeated Eala in the Eastbourne Open final back in June.

The win also marked an end to Eala's previous struggles in opening rounds.

In the Wuhan Open, she lost to Moyuka Ushijima in the first round of the qualifiers before sustaining a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Tereza Valentova in the Round of 32 of Japan Open. She then proceeded to the Guangzhou Open, but lost to Claire Liu of USA in the Round of 32 as well, 2-6, 6-4, 4-6. 

—JMB, GMA Integrated News