Olympic medallist Wang Xinyu broke Alex Eala’s stride in the semi-final of the ASB Classic with a three-set victory over the Filipina tennis star on Saturday (10 January).
No. 4 seed Eala enjoyed two straight-set victories to advance to the semi-final against the seventh seed from the People’s Republic of China, but seemed to lose some of that momentum once she stepped onto the hard courts in Auckland, New Zealand again.
Eala was down 0-4 to start the opening set, but managed to rally back to eventually take it 7-5. She was less fortunate in the following sets, which ended in tightly in favour of Wang, 7-5, 6-4.
After 2 hours and 48 gruelling minutes, Wang came out on top to secure a spot in the final on Sunday and now becomes the first Chinese player to reach the singles final at the WTA 250 tournament since 2012 winner Zheng Jie.
It was the first time that Eala and Wang faced on court, the latter struggling with injury the two previous seasons.
Wang will now face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or USA’s Iva Jović in the final. The two tennis players will compete in the later semifinal and are also facing each other for the first time.