Magda Linette started her competition very well in the WTA 500 tournament in Abu Dhabi. In the opening match, the Pole defeated the 18-year-old talent from the Philippines, Alexandra Eala, in two sets. Now she will face one of the seeded players.

Getty Images / Jose Luis Contreras/DAX Images/NurPhoto / Pictured: Magda Linette

Magda Linette certainly had high hopes for the WTA 500 tournament in Abu Dhabi. The Pole did not start the season well and managed to win only one match in the four tournaments so far.

The most expensive match for her was the first round of the Australian Open against Karolina Woźniacka, where she lost in the second set. This resulted in the loss of points for last year’s semi-finals in Melbourne and a significant drop in the WTA rankings.

In the first round of the competition in Abu Dhabi, our tennis player faced Alexandra Eala. He is an 18-year-old talent from the Philippines who won the 2022 US Open juniors.

Last year she graduated from Rafael Nadal’s tennis academy in Mallorca. Iga Świątek attended the graduation ceremony. Eala played on the pitches of the United Arab Emirates thanks to a “wild card” from the organizers.

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Both players started the match with safe passes. The first break point occurred in the fifth game. Its author was a Filipina who failed to take advantage of the opportunity. After a while, the Pole wasted three chances to break through. At the halfway point in the set, the score was thus 3:3.

Later games also fell to the servers, although Eala had another chance to take her opponent’s serve. The streak of held passes continued to the end, meaning the match had to be decided by tie-break. Linette had a great opening and quickly jumped out to 4-0. Although her rival appeared in the same series and led to a tie, the deciding vote belonged to the Polish woman. The 31-year-old won the last three actions and took the lead in the match.

The second part had a completely different course. The Pole started by breaking the pass from the Filipino, who immediately returned a serve. After a while our tennis player again received the serve from her opponent and after holding the serve she made it 3:1. Linette completely dominated Eala in this set and also won the next three games and recorded two more breaks. This gave her a 7:6 (4), 6:1 victory and advancement to the next stage of the competition.

The 31-year-old Pole will face sixth seed Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second round of the tournament in Abu Dhabi.

Mubadala Abu Dhabi OpenAbu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)
WTA 500, hard court, prize pool of PLN 922.5 thousand. dollars
Tuesday, February 6

1st round of singles play:

Magda Linette (Poland) – Alexandra Eala (Philippines, WC) 7:6(4), 6:1

Also see:
The competition in Dallas has started. One of the favorites met his opponent
The changing fortunes of former Cordoba champions. The favorites met their rivals

Watch WTA Tour matches with Iga Świątek, Magda Linette and other top players on CANAL+ online (sponsored link)