For one set, Alex Eala had to fight for every inch. For the next, she took them all.
The World No. 18 powered into the Asian Games semifinals on Wednesday, overcoming Taiwan’s Joanna Garland, 7-5, 6-0, at the Nagoya City Higashiyama Park Tennis Center.
What began as a quarterfinal tug-of-war quickly became a masterclass in control.
Garland pushed Eala to the limit in the opening set, edging ahead 5-4 and moving within a game of stealing the advantage. Eala, however, refused to blink. The 21-year-old Filipina, who skipped the lucrative China Open to represent the Philippines in the Asian Games, dug deep and reeled off the next two games to snatch the set after 71 minutes.
Then she slammed the door shut.
Eala needed only 38 minutes to turn the second set into a procession, serving Garland a 6-0 bagel and booking her place in the final four with barely a hint of drama.
The statistics underline just how sharply the match tilted.
Eala won 40 of 67 receiving points and converted seven of 15 break-point chances. In the second set, those numbers became downright unforgiving: she won 87 percent of Garland’s service points and converted all four break opportunities.
Garland, meanwhile, managed just 12 points in the second set and failed to win a single point on her second serve.
Eala was hardly charitable on her own serve, either. She won 85 percent of her second-serve points for the match and committed just one double fault.
The first set demanded patience. The second demanded only execution.
And once Eala found her rhythm, the quarterfinal stopped being a battle and became a statement.
She did not simply earn a semifinal berth. She made the final four look like the natural next stop.
