Alex Eala is poised to achieve a stunning new career-high in the WTA Rankings after battling from the brink to beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich at the Abu Dhabi Open.
In an enthralling contest at the WTA 500 event, world No 45 Eala battled past world No 109 Sasnovich 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) to keep her campaign alive and reach the fifth WTA Tour-level quarter-final of her young career.
After breaking in the final game of the second set to force a decider, the 20-year-old was unable to initially build on that momentum, with Sasnovich storming to a 4-0 lead in the third set.
However, Eala broke twice when the Belarusian was serving for the match, and then came back from a minibreak down in the deciding tiebreak to seal a memorable win.
“I am so happy, I can’t believe it,” said Eala, speaking during her on-court interview with Monica Puig.
“I just think that these moments are just, you know, moments I only have dreamed about. Selling out stadiums is insane, and these matches in particular are just really the ones that stick with you. I’ve had a lot of them in the past year, so I’m really happy with this win.
“I think she [Sasnovich] started really well, and in the tight moments she also stepped up, especially with the serve and a lot of winners.
“I really tried my best in those moments to fight, I really tried to find the fight, and in the end, when I was coming back, I was able to find it — so I’m really proud of that.”
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Eala will return to action on Thursday, with the world No 45 facing a tough quarter-final against second seed and world No 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova.
However, regardless of her quarter-final result, the Filipina now looks set for another significant breakthrough in the WTA Rankings, following a whirlwind twelve months.
Before her match against Sasnovich, Eala was already provisionally up two places in the WTA Live Rankings to a career-high of world No 43, following her opening victory against Zeynep Sonmez.
However, after battling through to the last eight of the WTA 500 event, Eala is provisionally up seven places to world No 38 in the WTA Live Rankings.
The star is effectively guaranteed a new career-high ranking next Monday and could secure her debut in the top-40, should results in Abu Dhabi and further WTA events in Cluj and Ostrava go her way.
Eala’s match against Alexandrova is set to be the third match on court on Thursday, in what will be the first career meeting between the two women.
The winner of the quarter-final will face either fifth seed Liudmilla Samsonova or wildcard Hailey Baptiste in the semi-final.
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