AFTER a day off, Alex Eala has found herself drawn against tournament second seed Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals of the WTA 500 Mubadala DC Open.
It will be the second career meeting between world No. 28 Wala and Svitolina, the world No. 10 from Ukraine who lost to the Filipina, 6-3, 6-4, in their Berlin Open quarterfinal last June.
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Eala punched her ticket to the quarterfinals after defeating seventh seed and former champion Leylah Fernandez, 6-2, 7-6(1), on Thursday morning, Manila time while Svitolina beat Polina Kudermetova, 7-6(4), 6-4.
Still chasing the first WTA title of her career, Eala will look to replicate her success against Svitolina and further burnish an already impressive 7-4 -4 win-loss record against the top 10 players in the world rankings.
In an interview with the WTA, Svitolina described their first meeting as "not an easy battle for me," but said she is hoping to level the head-to-head record against Eala.
'New challenge'
On facing the Filipina once again, Svitolina said: "Tomorrow is a new surface, new country, a new city, so it's a new challenge, and hopefully I'm going to draw some confidence from today's match and carry it into tomorrow."
The two will meet on Saturday morning, with the match scheduled to start not before 6:30 a.m., Manila time.
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