WASTING no time making her presence felt in Cincy, Alex Eala erased an old heartbreak against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, dominating the Romanian, 6-1, 3-0, in the round of 64 of the Cincinnati Open early Sunday morning, Manila time.
The timely payback propelled the Filipina No. 20 into the third round of the WTA 1000.
Eala opened her campaign against Ruse after earning a first-round bye as the 17th seed, her highest seeding on the Tour so far.
The Filipina quickly took control, breaking away to a 2-1 lead before refusing to let Ruse back into the set, closing it out, 6-1, with four straight games.
Carrying that momentum into the second set, Eala continued to pile on the pressure at 3-0 before a weather delay. Ruse eventually retired from the match after calling a medical timeout.
This feat evened out their head-to-head to 1-1 after Eala initially lost to Ruse in their first meeting in 2024.
The Cincinnati Open marks her third stop in the North American hard-court swing after a decent round-of-16 run in Toronto and a breakthrough WTA 500 title run in Washington, where she clinched her first tour-level crown.
Eala now awaits the winner between Amanda Anisimova and Zeynep Sonmez for her next matchup.
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