BY REY C. LACHICA
HANGZHOU, China – What a difference a day can make.
After an almost effortless win in the second round, Alex Eala was challenged to max on Tuesday, Sept. 26, but still got the job done in the tennis competition of the 19th Asian Games here.
Thanks to her good mind-set – she played in Great Britain and Japan heading into the continental showpiece – Eala survived a huge scare in the opening set en route to a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 win over veteran Rutuja Bhosale of India.
It took Eala over 70 minutes to wrap up the first set that was decided by a tiebreaker.
Good thing for Eala, she managed to produce a beautiful shot in that critical stage to finally disarm her rival and delighted her supporters, including her mother, who was once a member of the national swimming team.
But it was a breeze in the second set for Eala to secure a quarterfinals meeting with Japanese Kyoka Okamura, a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victor over Savanna Ly-Nguyen.
On paper, Eala holds a slight edge over her Japanese rival owing to her better ranking at No. 192 while Okamura is ranked 223rd.
Apart from that, Eala also boasts of four ITF titles against her rival who only has a quarterfinal finish.
Eala struggled with her serves early, committing 5 doubles that lessened the impact of her three aces.
In the second set, Eala kicked to a higher gear and started to dominate her rival with her repertoire of shots – none more lethal than her double-fisted backhand shots.
Eala advanced to the round-of-16 in style, overpowering Sarah Ibrahim Khan of Pakistan, 6-0, 6-0, on Monday.
Playing in her first Asian Games, Eala is also scheduled to play in the mixed doubles with Ruben Gonzales later in the day.
