Clay Court Challenges Continue for Eala

Stuttgart, Germany — In the much anticipated first face-off between Leylah Fernandez and Alex Eala, the Canadian came out on top — 6-1, 6-4.

Eala found herself in a deep hole early as she went down 0-5. While she eventually got on the board by the sixth game, Fernandez quickly shut the door to secure the first set.

Except for several double faults here and there, the Canadian, Fernandez, played brilliantly as she dominated the points for most of the match with her beautiful play.

Alex Eala, for her part, did not play particularly bad by any means. In fact, she had a couple of service aces and a couple of highlight worthy moments. The trademark fight back was there too as the more tightly contested second set  saw Eala get as close as 4-5 after saving a couple of critical match points and even threatened to tie the match at one point.

However, just when it looked like Eala was on the verge of making a run for a third set, Leylah Fernandez found her fatal form once again — pouncing on her opponent’s unforced errors in the closing game. 

Everything worked for Fernandez  — forehands, backhands, drop shots, combined with excellent defense and poise helped her seal the victory.

“She’s not gonna go down easy, she’s gonna fight. You have to take the match.” Leylah shares a conversation between her and her coach during the post-game interview.

Asked to rate her own performance, Fernandez gave herself a 7 out of 10. “It was an 8 or 9 of 10 up until that 6-1, 5-2 point (of the match).” which just shows how much she was dominating before things got a little too close for comfort.

Fernandez moves on to face Jasmine Paolini in the next round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

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