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In W100 Poland debut, Alex Eala conquers Slovak qualifier

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Rosy Mina

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Alex Eala at the W25 El Espinar/Segovia in Spain. Photo courtesy of Open Castilla y León Villa de El Espinar on Facebook." src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/sports/08/02/eala.jpg"/><figcaption>Alex Eala at the W25 El Espinar/Segovia in Spain.<em> Photo courtesy of Open Castilla y León Villa de El Espinar on Facebook.</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>In her maiden foray into a $100,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament, Alex Eala of the Philippines conquered qualifier Laura Svatikova of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-4, at the W100 Grodzisk Mazowiecki in Poland on Tuesday.</p><p>Their first-round match, held at Court 14 of the Akademia Tenisowa Tenis Kozerki, began with Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) World No. 280 Eala racing to a 4-1 lead with a love service hold.</p><p>The 17-year-old Filipino followed this up with a service break via a forehand cross-court winner to serve for the set at 5-1.</p><p>Svatikova, the 28-year-old WTA World No. 1,322, refused to give up by securing the next three games to trail at 4-5.</p><p>The Slovak broke to be at 2-5 after a double fault by Eala, held serve with a forehand winner, and broke again after Eala hit a forehand long. </p><p>With Eala serving for the set for the second time, she forced a long backhand return to gain two set points. </p><p>She let out a forehand cross-court approach shot winner in response to Svatikova’s drop shot to take the first set, 6-4, in 37 minutes.</p><p>The Filipino teen continued her run in the second set, 4-1, even after her Slovakian opponent forced the fifth game to deuce.</p><p>Eala returned another drop shot with a backhand cross-court approach shot winner to advance to 5-2, and Svatikova responded by forcing a forehand return of serve error to be at 3-5.</p><p>As Eala was serving for the match at 15-30, she caught up with a forehand passing shot winner and gained a match point after Svatikova netted a backhand drop shot.</p><p>A long forehand shot by Eala brought the game to deuce, and errors from the Filipino gave the Slovak four break point opportunities.</p><p>Eala managed to save the break points until Svatikova let out a forehand drop shot winner to gain a fifth chance to break. </p><p>The Slovak finally broke serve, 4-5, after Eala netted a forehand on the run.</p><p>In the following game, Eala quickly gained the upperhand, 30-0, with a backhand winner, then earned three match points after her backhand return of serve was netted by Svatikova.</p><p>Eala clinched the second set, 6-4, in 46 minutes after her backhand return of serve yielded a forehand error.</p><p>In the second round, Eala will seek to beat No. 14 seed Katharina Hobgarski of Germany, who received a bye in the opening round.</p><p>Hobgarski, 25, is the WTA World No. 250 with a career-high of No. 193 achieved in 2019.</p><p>Last week, Eala was the No. 4 seed at the W25 El Espinar/Segovia in Spain, where she was routed in the semifinals.</p><p>It was the fourth semifinal result of the season so far for the Rafa Nadal Academy player who has won two singles titles on the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour: the 2021 W15 Manacor in Spain and 2022 W25 Chiang Rai in Thailand.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/30/22/tennis-alex-eala-routed-by-home-bet-in-w25-spain-semis">Alex Eala routed by home bet in W25 Spain semis</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/23/22/tennis-no-3-seed-halts-alex-ealas-w60-spain-run">Tennis: No. 3 seed halts Alex Eala’s W60 Spain run</a></li></ul><div> </div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1647607" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

In her maiden foray into a $100,000 ITF tournament, Alex Eala conquered qualifier Laura Svatikova of Slovakia at the W100 Grodzisk Mazowiecki in Poland.