Alexandra Eala ousted the defending Mubadala DC Open champion, No. 7 seed Leylah Fernandez, with a 6-2, 7-6 (1) victory to advance to the quarterfinals in Washington.
The Filipina competitor dropped five straight games to fall into a 5-1 second-set hole before responding with five straight game wins and then a dominant tiebreaker showing against her Canadian opponent where she won the final four points.
Third-seeded Naomi Osaka of Japan didn’t fall into the same trap, reaching the DC quarterfinals for the first time after American Ashlyn Krueger retired due to a right ankle injury while trailing 6-3, 3-1. Osaka hit just 47% of her first serves and won just 54.5% of her first-serve points but covered for that by winning 18 of 25 (72%) second-serve points and never facing a break point.
Osaka will face Elisabetta Coccioretto for a semifinal spot after the Italian outlasted No. 8 seed Emma Navarro for a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 triumph. Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova also reached the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of China’s Xinyu Wang.
The Memphis Classic
The upsets continued in second-round action, with No. 4 seed Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey and No. 5 seed Camila Osorio of Colombia getting knocked off, leaving just one top-five seed left standing at the Tennessee tournament.
Sonmez jumped ahead before taking a 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 defeat against the U.S.’s Elvina Kalieva. Sonmez won just 50% of her service points and faced a staggering 18 break-point chances, only managing to save 10 of them, and getting broken in the final game of both the second and third sets.
Osorio fell to Russia’s Anastasia Zakharova in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. Osorio had all three aces in the match but also all nine double faults. She was broken to begin each of the sets and fell in a 4-0 hole in the second set.
Zakharova will next take on Mexico’s Renata Zarazua, who beat Germany’s Tatjana Maria 6-4, 6-4 in the final match of the day. Katie Volynets of the United States beat Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus 6-4, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals.
–Field Level Media
