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.
According to Philippines News Agency, the fourth-seeded Ostapenko rallied from 1-5 in the second set to claim victory after one hour and 43 minutes. In 2025, Ostapenko had previously lost to Eala at the Miami Open in the United States and the Eastbourne Open in the United Kingdom.
The World No. 46 Eala had earlier defeated hometown bet Julia Grabher in the first round with a score of 6-4, 6-3. Ostapenko will now face Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the Round of 16. Ruse secured her spot after a victory over Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska.
Other second-round matches include top seed Russian Mirra Andreeva against American Sloane Stephens, second seed Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova against Czech Karolina Pliskova, and third seed Russian Liudmila Samsonova against Austrian Lilli Tagger. Fifth seed Romanian Sorana Cirstea will compete against Hungarian Dalma Galfi.
In addition, German Tamara Korpatsch is set to face the winner of the match between Austrian Anastasia Potapova and Chinese Shuai Zhang. Croatian Donna Vekic is scheduled to meet the winner between Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina and Hungarian Panna Udvardy.
