MANILA – Filipino Alexandra Eala advanced to the second round of the WTA 500 HSBC Championships after beating Chinese Zhang Shuai, 6-3, 6-2, Tuesday night (Philippine time) at The Queens Club in London, Great Britain.
Eala, who improved to World No. 33 after winning the Birmingham Open, will face sixth seed American Iva Jovic, who defeated Croatian Antonia Ruzic, 6-3, 6-4.
Eala suffered a 4-6, 2-6 first-round loss to Jovic at the French Open.
Meanwhile, British Katie Boulter ousted No. 7 Canadian Leylah Fernandez, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5, to advance against Romanian Jaqueline Cristian, who won over Chinese Qinwen Zheng, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
German Tatjana Maria, the defending champion, downed Greek Maria Sakkari, 6-3, 6-3, to set up a duel with No. 1 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.
German Laura Siegemund beat British Francesca Jones, 6-2, 6-3, to forge a showdown with No. 2 Amanda Anisimova.
Czech Karolina Pliskova turned back American McCartney Kessler, 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-4, to advance against No. 3 Canadian Victoria Mboko.
British Harriet Dart prevailed over Liudmila Samsonova, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, to arrange a second-round showdown with No. 4 Swiss Belinda Bencic.
Rybakina, Anisimova, Mboko and Bencic drew first-round byes.
No. 7 Romanian Sorana Cirstea survived Australian Maddison Inglis, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, to advance against British Emma Raducanu, who beat Anna Blinkova, 6-0, 6-3.
Other winners were Czech Marie Bouzkova over Uzbek Polina Kudermetova, 6-0, 6-3; and Croatian Donna Vekic over British Mika Stojsavljevic, 6-2, 6-3. (PNA)
