Alex Eala pulls off incredible comeback win at Abu Dhabi Open

Alex Eala pulled off a heroic performance fighting back from match point to beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the Round of 16 at the WTA 500 Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open.

The Filipina star had to dig deep against 31-year-old Sasnovich as she booked her place in the Quarter-finals of the competition in dramatic fashion.

After loosing the opening set 6-2, Eala knew she had to put on a stronger showing in the second set if she was to remain in the competition.

The experienced Sasnovich meant business and put the pressure on Eala right away. A hard fought second set which saw multiple deuces was level at 3-3 before Eala pulled away to make it 1-1 winning the set 6-4.

Sasnovich wasn’t rattled and started the final set strong going two games up almost instantly draining Eala’s momentum. 

Eala found herself 4-0 down and looking set to be dumped from the tournament but managed to pull two games back giving her hope.

Sasnovich won the following set making it 5-2 and was on the brink of the Quarter-finals after reaching match point. 

Eala refused to give up and with the backing of the Abu Dhabi fans, she forged a brilliant comeback from a match point down. 

From there she won the next four games and found herself leading 6-5, shocking the tiring Sasnovich. 

The Belarusian pulled a game back and showed resilience from what would have been an incredibly frustrating few games. 

The night proved to be Eala’s with the momentum completely switching in her favour after a jaw-dropping comeback, as she went on to win the tie-break game 7-5.

Despite an incredible win Eala will know she will need to put in a much stronger performance if she wants to get past the World No. 11 in the Quarter-finals on Thursday. 

Alexandrova entered the tournament as one of the top seeds, in her Round of 16 game she faced Dayana Yastremska and won convincingly 6-3, 6-0.