TRIED and tested but triumphant.
Alex Eala dug deep to pull off a 7-6(7), 7-5 victory over world No. 81 Antonia Ruzic and reach the semifinals of the WTA250 Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open on Friday at Victoria Park Centre Court in Causeway Bay.
It was a test of character for the world No. 17 as she defiantly stood her ground in a match that went on for two hours and 30 minutes to reach her fourth semifinals of the season.
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"It was a roller-coaster for sure and incredible battle. I don't know what inspired me or kept me to continue digging deeper. Antonia played an amazing match but I'm blessed to play another round here," said Eala.
The Filipina tennis star will now play world No. 30 Maria Sakkari of Greece, who beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 6-2, 6-3, in their own quarterfinal matchup.
The 21-year old previously reached the semis at the WTA250 Auckland, WTA500 Berlin, and the WTA500 Mubadala DC Open in Washington DC where she won her maiden tour title.
IIt was another exhausting battle for Eala who had to gut out a tiebreak in the first set. she raced to a 5-0 lead but allowed the Croatian to roar back and tie the game at 6-6, wasting two set points before recovering in time and scoring on a backhand to take the 9-7 win.
She also squandered a 4-2 lead in Set Two before rains caused a 20-minute suspension of the match. When the players returned to the court, Ruzic took advantage by breaking Eala and grabbing the 5-4 lead.
But Eala caimed the next two games to go up 6-5.
Tensions continued to build after Eala wasted two match points, but Ruzic could only send her return to the net allowing the Filipina to progress to the Final Four in her final tournament to end her season.
Eala took 40 winners in the match to make up for her 47 unforced errors and won six of the 13 break points she faced.
Eala earned US$12,331 from the prize pot and gained 98 ranking points, which should be enough to bring her once more to a new career-high 16th in the world.
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