Alexandra Eala came from a break down in the final set to beat Magdalena Frech 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 on Wednesday at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, surviving a 2-hour, 21-minute fight to reach the second round in Rome. Eala, the only player from the Philippines to appear in the event in the Open Era, recovered after Frech had moved ahead 3-1 in the third set.
The win was Eala’s 15th main-draw victory on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz this season and her fifth consecutive opening-match win at WTA 1000 events. She opened with a 6-0 first set before Frech answered 6-3 in the second, then reset again after the third-set swing and closed out the match.
Eala will next face 31st seed Wang Xinyu, who beat her in three sets in the Auckland semifinals in January. That rematch gives the Filipino left-hander an immediate chance to settle a result that already shapes the path ahead in Rome.
Wednesday’s action also produced a one-sided win for Jelena Ostapenko, who beat Lucrezia Stefanini 6-0, 6-1 in 54 minutes, converted all six of her break-point opportunities and saved all three break points against her serve. It was Ostapenko’s first completed WTA-level match in which she dropped just one game since 's-Hertogenbosch in 2016, and the result lifted her to a 17th career victory in Rome before a next meeting with sixth seed Amanda Anisimova.
Maria Sakkari added a comeback of her own, rallying from a set and a break down to defeat Lilli Tagger 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 and set up a meeting with No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina. Katerina Siniakova beat Lois Boisson 6-2, 6-3, Taylor Townsend defeated Nuria Brancaccio 6-3, 6-2, and Tatjana Maria and Laura Siegemund, both 38, were among the other winners on Wednesday.
