The Philippines’ Alexandra Eala saved a match point while rallying for a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) win over Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Wednesday in the second round of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open in the United Arab Emirates.
After trailing 4-0 in the final set, Eala still trailed 5-2 when Sasnovich had a match point on her own serve. Eala bounced back to win the game on her fourth break point, then broke again to level the set 5-5.
Neither player lost a point on her serve in the decisive tiebreaker until the 11th point, when Eala went up 6-5. She sealed the match on the next point.
Second-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia and Sonay Kartal of Great Britain also earned second-round wins, while the Czech Republic’s Sara Bejlek upset seventh-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-4, 6-3.
Ostrava Open
All four seeded players in action dropped their second-round matches in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch, ranked 124th in the world, emerged with a 6-3, 6-4 win over second-seeded Emiliana Arango of Colombia. The Czech Republic’s Linda Fruhvirtova routed fourth-seeded Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-1.
Great Britain’s Katie Boulter crushed fifth-seeded Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland 6-2, 6-2, and France’s Diane Parry downed eighth-seeded Panna Udvardy of Hungary 6-1, 6-2.
The Czech Republic’s Nikola Bartunkova got past France’s Fiona Ferro 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
Transylvania Open
Ukrainian qualifier Daria Snigur turned in a dominant display in the second round at Cluj-Napoca, Romania, trouncing second-seeded Jaqueline Cristian 6-1, 6-0.
Snigur, ranked No. 144, took advantage of six double faults by Cristian and broke serve on seven of her 11 opportunities. Cristian won just 29% of her service points.
Top-seeded Emma Raducanu of Great Britain downed Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan 7-5, 6-1, and third-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania blitzed Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek 6-1, 6-0.
Fifth-seeded Anastasia Potapova of Austria and Maja Chwalinska of Poland also advanced.
–Field Level Media
