Alex Eala beats China's Zhang at HSBC, sets up rematch with Iva Jovic

Alex Eala overpowered an error-prone Shuai Zhang in the HSBC Championships on Tuesday, June 9, winning their first-round match in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.

She will next face the American athlete Iva Jovic in the round of 16 at The Queen’s Club in Kensington. It was Jovic who stopped her French Open run last May, beating her in the first round.

Eala battled from 0-2 down, then saved three break points to wrap up the first set, 6-3, in 37 minutes. Over the weekend, she won the Lexus Birmingham Open WTA 125 championship, for a strong start in her grass-court campaign.

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Strong and steady on grass

As the second set proceeded on Court 1, Eala got off to a quick start, breaking Zhang’s first service game.

But Zhang broke back.

Eala converted her third break point opportunity on Zhang’s next service game, then easily held serve to reclaim the lead in the second set, 3-1.

She had three break point opportunities on the Chinese athlete’s next service game, but Zhang clawed her way back, at one point serving an ace, and held serve.

Alex Eala’s first meeting with Shuai Zhang

After holding serve herself, Eala converted another break point opportunity, taking a 5-2 lead and getting her first chance to serve for the match. In all, she converted five of 12 break point opportunities, while Zhang converted only two of seven.

She racked up three match points, then converted the first one, winning the match in one hour and nine minutes.

It was the first singles meeting between Eala, now No. 33 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings, and Zhang.

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Zhang, 37, is currently ranked No. 8 in doubles and 64th in singles. Eala and Indonesia’s Janice Tjen beat Zhang and Cristina Bucsa in straight sets in the Abu Dhabi quarterfinals last February.

Raducanu, Boulter also advance

Like the defending champion Tatjana Maria of Germany, Zhang was among the qualifiers in the HSBC Championships this year.

Among the other first-round winners in the WTA 500 tournament were the British star Emma Raducanu, who defeated Anna Blinkova in straight sets, and Jovic, who dispatched Antonia Ruzic, also in straight sets.

British player Katie Boulter outlasted Canada’s Leylah Fernandez to advance to the second round.

Sorana Cirstea also advanced after beating the Australian player Maddison Inglis in three sets.

Serena Williams and Victoria Mboko were set to face the American Nicole Melichar-Martinez and New Zealander Erin Routliffe in the women’s doubles first round.

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