By Jean Malanum
MANILA – Filipino sensation Alexandra Eala moved to the second round after her opponent, American qualifier Hailey Baptiste retired due to an injury in the WTA1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships early Monday (PH time) at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre in United Arab Emirates.
Eala took the first set, 6-4, and was trailing 0-1 in the second set when the World No. 45 Baptiste quit and received treatment.
Eala will next face sixth seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy, who had a first-round bye.
Kimberly Birrell of Australia, Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic, Magda Linette of Poland, and Janice Tjen of Indonesia also won their respective matches.
Birrell defeated Tatjana Maria of Germany, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, to advance against top seed Elena Rybakina.
Krejcikova outplayed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-4 6-4, to forge a second-round duel with No. 2 Amanda Anisimova of USA.
Linette prevailed over Lulu Sun of New Zealand, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, to set up a meeting with No. 8 Ekaterina Alexandrova, a runner-up at the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi Open two weeks ago.
Tjen conquered Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, 6-4, 6-1, to advance against Leyla Fernandez of Canada, who ousted No. 13 Ludmila Samsonova, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.
Other first-round winners No. 10 Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic, Elise Mertens of Belgium, Peyton Stearns of USA, Ella Seidel of Germany and Diana Shnaider.
Meanwhile, Eala reached a career-high No. 40 in the WTA rankings on Feb. 4. She lost to Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic, 6-7 (6), 1-6, in the first round of the WTA 1000 Qatar TotalEnergies Open last week.
Before that, she bowed to second seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, 3-6, 3-6, in the quarterfinal of the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi Open.
Eala and Indonesian Janice Tjen marched to the doubles semifinal; however, they fell to fourth seeds Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia and Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain, 4-6, 2-6.
Given a wild card and seeded No. 2 at the WTA 125 Philippine Women’s Open last month, Eala absorbed a 4-6, 4-6 loss to Colombia’s Camila Osorio in the quarterfinal round.
Osorio was eventually crowned champion, beating Croatian Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-3, 7-5. (PNA)
