Alexandra “Alex” Eala ended a run of early exits in singles play when she defeated Britain's Katie Boulter via retirement to reach the second round at the Prudential Hong Kong Open on Tuesday night.
The 20-year-old Filipina sensation led Ms Boulter 6-4, 2-1 after Ms Boulter, the runner-up in the 2024 edition, retired due to a left foot injury.
Ms Ella advanced to the last 16 on Thursday against third-seeded Canadian and world No. 21 Victoria Mboko, intent on making the most of her shot after consecutive first-round exits in Guangzhou, Osaka and Wuhan.
“I'm really happy to get to the next round. Obviously, it's not the way I wanted,” said Ms. Ella, who entered the WTA250 tournament in Hong Kong with a career-best ranking of 51st.
“Still, I think I demonstrated a really high level of tennis, and I think Katie did too. And I just hope she's OK now.”
Ms Ella had already crashed out of the women's doubles competition as she and Taiwanese partner Chan Hao-ching suffered a 6-3, 1-7, 7-10 defeat to Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Russian Kamila Rakhimova in the preliminary round of 16 on Monday. Olmin Leyba
