Filipina tennis star Alex Eala won 27 points off her first serves in bringing down Dutch Arianne Hartono, 6-2, 6-1, in the first round of W100 Bengaluru Tournament in India.
Relying on her powerful groundstrokes, the 19-year-old Eala scored her third straight win over the 163rd-ranked Hartono since their last meeting in Canberra a few weeks back.
Eala, who is seeking to improve her new career-high of 133 in the live WTA rankings will next deal with Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia in the next round.
Winning 11 points on her second serves, Eala found little trouble in putting away Hartono, whom she turned back, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round of the Canberra event.
Eala was previously at no. 136 last week and quickly climbed higher following her short stint in the Australian Open.
That was when Eala took a 7-5, 6-2 loss against Croatia’s Jana Fett in the Australian Open Qualifiers.
But Eala did not go home empty handed, as she picked up $21,989 for her effort.
Before that, Eala got a paycheck of $9,995 when she lost to China’s Wei Sijia, 5-7, 2-6, in their showdown for a finals’ berth in the Work Day Canberra International netfest.