By Jean Malanum
MANILA – Filipino Alexandra Eala absorbed a 4-6, 5-7 loss to Latvian Jelena Ostapenko in the second round of the WTA 500 Linz Open in Austria on Wednesday night.
It was Eala’s first tournament on clay this year and her first loss to Ostapenko in three meetings.
The fourth-seeded Ostapenko rallied from 1-5 in the second set to claim victory after one hour and 43 minutes.
In 2025, Ostapenko lost to Eala, 6-7(2), 5-7, at the Miami Open in the United States (R64) and 6-0, 2-6, 2-3 (ret.) at the Eastbourne Open in the United Kingdom (R16).
The World No. 46 Eala defeated hometown bet Julia Grabher, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round.
Ostapenko will be up against Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the Round of 16.
Ruse pulled off a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska, last year’s runner-up.
Other second round matches pit top seed Russian Mirra Andreeva against American Sloane Stephens, second seed Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova against Czech Karolina Pliskova, third seed Russian Liudmila Samsonova against Austrian Lilli Tagger, and fifth seed Romanian Sorana Cirstea against Hungarian Dalma Galfi.
German Tamara Korpatsch will face the winner between Austrian Anastasia Potapova and Chinese Shuai Zhang, while Croatian Donna Vekic will meet the winner between Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina and Hungarian Panna Udvardy. (PNA)
