It took Filipina tennis ace Alex Eala almost two hours to stop and upset Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, 7-6 (2), 7-5, early Saturday (Philippine time).
This allowed the 19-year-old Eala to move out of the Round of 64 at the Miami Open’s women’s singles in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Eala, now ranked no. 127 according to the live Women’s Tennis Association rankings, was done with the the 2017 French Open champion Ostapenko within an hour and 53 minutes.
Eala’s triumph came as top seed Aryna Sabalenka beat Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova, 6-3, 6-0, in only 58 minutes.
Eala got past another high-ranking netter, WTA no. 73 player Katie Volynets of the United States, 6-3, 7-6(7-3).
She picked her way out of a 0-4 deficit in the first set, after battling Ostapenko to six deuces in the opening game.
The Filipina then held serve five times, before prevailing in the first set’s tiebreak, 7-2, when Eala raced to a 4-1 lead, and got out of a 4-all deadlock, and into two more ties, 5-all, and 6-all.
In the second set, Eala broke serve for a 6-5 edge, and held on in the 12th game, 40-30.
Eala is seeking the $1.124-million top purse at stake to the women’s singles winner of this WTA 1000 tournament.
A wild card entry, Eala is set to face fifth seed Madison Keys in the round of 32.
Keys, the reigning Australian Open champion, posted a 6-3, 6-3 win over Elina Avanesyan on Friday night to reach the third round.
Keys is making her 14th appearance in the tournament, and had good run in 2016 when she made it to quarterfinals, which was her career-best showing.