Oliynykova Beats Eala 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 at Strasbourg Open

Oleksandra Oliynykova beat Alexandra Eala 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 at strasbourg open, turning a slow start into a first-round comeback in 2 hours and 52 minutes. The 24-year-old qualifier also kept alive a personal reason that mattered as much as the result.

Oliynykova Finds the Last Four Games

Eala took the opening set and led 4-0 in the second before Oliynykova steadied the match and pushed it to 5-5. She then won the final four games, which ended the Filipina player’s resistance in the first round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg.

That finish fit the way the match narrowed late. Oliynykova said that at 3-3 in the third set, she told herself tennis had already won and that she could play more freely, and she followed that by reeling off the last four games.

Denis Travels To Strasbourg

The win carried a more personal weight for Oliynykova because her father and manager Denis was due to travel to France on leave from the Ukrainian army. He has not seen her play live for two years, and she said she needed to win so he could watch her in person.

“For me it was so important,” she said after the match. She added, “Because he's now coming here, and every match he will see, and every day is so important because I don't know when he will see my match the next time. I was thinking about this before the match, and it was emotionally so important for me.”

Break Points Tell The Story

Eala made the contest messy before fading. She saved 15 of the 23 break points she faced and converted six of nine break points on Oliynykova’s serve, but the No. 66 still found a way through when the score tightened.

Oliynykova called it “an absolutely amazing match,” and the numbers back up why she valued it. It was her third Top 50 win of the season, and this one came after surviving a second-set swing that nearly erased her lead. For a qualifier, that is the kind of result that can change the tone of a week in Strasbourg.