World No. 180 Tatiana Prozorova stunned No. 3 seed Alexandra Eala in a marathon Singapore Tennis Open second round, coming from a set and 4-2 down to advance to her first WTA quarterfinal 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in 3 hours and 9 minutes. The result was the 22-year-old’s first career Top 20 win.
Indeed, Prozorova had only won three tour-level matches prior to Thursday’s contest — at Palermo 2023 and Memphis this July. She had just one previous Top 50 win under her belt, over Tatjana Maria in the second round of the Manila WTA 125 event in January, but struck nearly double Eala’s total of winners — 52 to the Filipina’s 24 — to score a career-best victory.
The result was Washington champion Eala’s first loss to a player ranked outside the Top 100 in exactly a year — since her loss in last September’s Jingshan WTA 125 semifinals to then-No. 146 Lulu Sun.
“Honestly, I don’t have any words right now to describe my emotions, my feelings,” Prozorova said in her on-court interview. “Wow — I just did it! I just believed in myself ’til the end. I knew that she will fight. I also will be fighting ’til the end. That’s what I just did, and it worked.”
Prozorova has had to battle from a set and a break down in both of her matches this week. In the first round, she also trailed Sofia Costoulas by a set and 4-2 before pulling through 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-2 in 2 hours and 51 minutes.
Asked where her fighting spirit came from, Prozorova attributed it to her pre-match sugar intake.
“I ate a lot of desserts today,” she joked. “Maybe it also told me, ‘Hey, c’mon, let’s go, fight!'”
She’ll face Wang Xinyu in the last eight after the Chinese player came from 4-1 down in the first set to defeat qualifier Joanna Garland 7-5, 6-4.
More to come…