On-fire Eala sweeps Svitolina to barge into Berlin Open semis
MANILA, Philippines -- Alex Eala is in the midst of another run to remember, this time in the Berlin Tennis Open.
The Filipina tennis sensation barged into the semifinals of the WTA 500 tournament after sweeping World No. 8 Elina Svitolina, 6-3, 6-4, early Saturday morning (Manila time.)
Eala defeated World No. 2 Elena Rybakina in the round of 16 on Friday via a 7-5, 6-4 sweep. Once again, she defeated multiple top 10 players in one tournament.
“I think I'm getting better. I hope I'm getting better, of course. Being exposed to this kind of level more often really pushes you to your limits and forces you to showcase what you got,” she said.
“Some weeks are better than others and I'm really enjoying this week so thank you everyone for coming along on the ride.”
Eala jumped to a 4-1 lead in the first set as she held off Svitolina early on.
But the Ukrainian won back-to-back games to keep herself into it, 3-4, but the Filipina finished off the first set in dominant fashion, 6-3.
And in the second set, the pride of the Philippines won the first two games before Svitolina tied things up at 2-all.
Eala, then, left her opponent in the rear-view mirror with three straight games, including a serve-breaking seventh game to go up 5-2.
Svitolina, though, breathed life to her campaign, closing the gap to just one, 4-5.
But Eala powered through in the 10th game. She fell behind 0-30 before going for the finishing blow for the win.
Standing in the way of the 21-year-old, ranked 35th in the world, is Czechia’s Linda Noskova.
Noskova defeated Spain’s Paula Badosa in the quarterfinal.
The Czechian defeated Eala in the Indian Wells Open earlier this year.
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