Alex Eala recovered from a bagel set loss against Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in their Round of 16 meeting at Eastbourne.
Underdog Alex Eala once again pulled off an upset over world no. 20 Jelena Ostapenko as she recovered from a humbling first set defeat to take the victory in three sets
—following a retirement from her foe, 0-6, 6-2, 3-2, in the Round of 16 at the Eastbourne Open on Wednesday.
Despite being blanked in the first set against a determined Ostapenko, Eala gathered her bearings to leave her opponent on the back foot — especially in the deciding third frame.
Eala went toe-to-toe with Ostapenko early in Set 3, including a back-and-forth match in the first game where they went through five deuces before the Filipina ultimately broke the Latvian’s serve to get the early advantage.
The Filipina was up 2-1 in the decider before Ostapenko called for a medical timeout for her left ankle.
While Eala and Ostapenko were able to resume their match for two more games, the latter had to call it quits after the injury bugger her anew in the sixth game.
Eala first swung momentum to her side when she strung together three straight games in Set 2, which stopped the bleeding after Ostapenko won the first seven games of the match — allowing her to take the lead, 3-1.
While Ostapenko held her serve in the next game to get within one, Eala held back before taking a crucial breakpoint to seize the 5-2 lead and served for the set.
Eala thus faces the winner between wildcard entrant Francesca Jones and world no. 32 Dayana Yastremska in the quarterfinals of the WTA 250 tiff.