Filipino tennis ace Alex Eala took down Sara Saito of Japan, 6-1, 6-7, 7-5, to advance to the second qualifying round of the Singapore Tennis Open Saturday in Singapore.

It took Eala two hours and 47 minutes before she eventually got the job done.

The Rafael Nadal Academy graduate is coming off a 4-6, 4-6 loss to Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia on W100 Bengaluru in India last Thursday.

Eala, 19, is looking for her first trophy of 2025 after suffering an early exit in the Australian Open.

There, the three-time Junior Grand Slam champion lost to Jana Fett of Croatia, 5-7, 2-6, in the first qualifying round.

Eala needs one more win in the Singaporean tilt to make it to the main draw.

She will be facing the winner between Chloe Paquet of France and Simona Waltert of Switzerland in the second qualifying round.

Eala’s best performance so far in 2025 was at the Workday Canberra International in Australia where she made it to the semifinal before bowing down to Sijia Wei of China, 5-7, 2-6.