MANILA, Philippines, March 6 ------ A new week presented Alex Eala a new opportunity to get back on track. Eala displayed renewed vigor on Tuesday, March 4, scoring a dominant 6-4, 6-2 victory over Leyre Romero Gormaz of Spain in the first round of the ITF 2nd Empire Women’s Indoor 2025 in Trnava, Slovakia.
Eager to bounce back in the second of the two-leg ITF series in Slovakia after a second-round exit the previous week, the third-seeded Eala maintained her sharpness all match long to keep the 22-year-old Romero Gormaz at bay and end their encounter in just 1 hour and 33 minutes. After an exchange of service breaks to start the first set, Eala held steady and waited for her opportunity to create some separation. The opening came in the ninth game when the world No. 140 Eala broke Spain’s world No. 155, paving the way for the Filipina teen to snag the first set in the 10th game.
The 19-year-old Eala kept Romero Gormaz on the back foot the entire second set. Eala broke Romero Gormaz in the third and seventh games to end the set in 44 minutes and advance to the round of 16. The path to the quarterfinals appears rather light for Eala as she faces the winner between two qualifiers, world No. 694 Freya Christie of Great Britain and world No. 264 Anna Rogers of the United States, in the next round.
Eala is looking to make a deep run this week in Slovakia as she gears up for an even bigger this March. For the third time in four years, Eala has been granted a wild card entry to the main draw of the WTA Miami Open, which is set to take place from March 18 to 30. Nineteen of the top 20 players in the world will be in Miami for the WTA 1000 event, putting Eala in a position to possibly face the likes of world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, world No. 2 Iga Swiatek of Poland, and world No. 3 Coco Gauff of the United States.
Source: rappler.com
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