Gritty Eala squeaks past old tormentor

MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala finally solved the Tereza Valentova puzzle with a gutsy 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) sweep and rolled her way to the WTA250 Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open quarterfinals yesterday at the center court of the jampacked Victoria Park Tennis Stadium.

The world No. 17 Eala wasted what seemed like a runaway 5-0 tiebreak advantage in the second set but recovered in time, banking  on her poise and grit to put the match to bed with a break and a winner.

Buoyed by the flag-waving Filipino crowd, Eala at last scored one on the No. 85 Czech - after dropping their first two meetings - en route to setting a duel against No. 81 Antonia Ruzic of Croatia for a seat in the Final Four.

Ruzic stunned the No. 6 seed and world No. 38 Xinyu Wang of China, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

“Laban! Laban lang. It was a fight. It was really tough. Tereza played incredibly well and we’re able to bring the match to a high level as reflected in the scores. I just escaped by a little bit,” said Eala as she needed almost two hours to finally take care of business against her tormentor.

Eala previously bowed to the 19-year-old Czech in the Japan Open last year and the Qatar Open this season, both in straight sets as part of her 0-13 struggle against Czech players.