Eala advances to Last 16 in Prudential Hong Kong Open

ALEXANDRA “ALEX” EALA ended a string of early exits in singles play as she advanced to the second round past Britain’s Katie Boulter via retirement at the Prudential Hong Kong Open on Tuesday night.

The 20-year-old Filipina sensation led Ms. Boulter, 6-4, 2-1, when Ms. Boulter, the runner-up in the 2024 edition, retired due to a left leg injury.

Ms. Eala moved forward to the Last 16 against third seed and world No. 21 Victoria Mboko of Canada on Thursday, intent on making the most of this shot at redemption following consecutive first-round exits in Guangzhou, Osaka and Wuhan.

“I’m really happy to advance to the next round. Obviously, it’s not in the way I wanted it to end,” said Ms. Eala, who entered the WTA250 tournament in Hong Kong with her career-best ranking of No. 51.

“Nevertheless, I think that I displayed a really high level of tennis, and I think that Katie did as well. And I just hope that she’s able to recover now.”

Ms. Eala had already crashed out of the women’s doubles competition as she and Taiwanese partner Chan Hao-ching absorbed a 6-3, 1-7, 7-10 loss to Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Russian Kamilla Rakhimova in Monday’s opening Round of 16. — Olmin Leyba