After posting a convincing win in the opening round, the real battle begins for Alex Eala.

The 20-year-old Filipina sensation will be stacked against a dangerous netter from Belarus in Aliaksandra Sasnovich when she sees action in the Round of 16 of the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi Open on Wednesday at the Zayed Sports City International Tennis Center.

Eala, now ranks No. 45 in the world, is overflowing with confidence after notching a 6-4, 6-3 win over Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey in the Round of 32 of this prestigious event, where the world’s best professional netters are also seeing action.

The last time Eala competed in this prestigious event was when she received a wildcard berth in 2024. However, she hardly made an impact as she suffered an early exit following a 6-7, 1-7 loss to Magda Linette of Poland in the Round of 32.

Since then, a lot of things happened as Eala had grown more competitive, more confident than before following her breakthrough performance in the Miami Open that enabled her to crack into the top 100 of the Women’s Tennis Association ranking. She also emerged with a gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games as well as a second-round appearance in the French Open.

“I’ve grown a lot since then, so let’s see how this year pans out. There are quite prominent differences in all aspects of my game,” said Eala following her first match since taking her country by storm during the WTA 125 Philippine Women’s Open at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center last week.

“But more than that, it’s the maturity — how I approach things on court. Physically, I’m stronger and more developed. It’s well-rounded growth.”

True enough, Eala displayed tremendous maturity against the world No. 79 Sonmez, whom she considers as one of her closest friends in the professional circuit.

In fact, she quickly set the tone with her strong service game in the opening set before shrugging off a furious rally from Sonmez in the second set to seal a convincing victory.

“I just want to say I’m so honored to share the court with one of my closest friends, Zeynep. I admire her so much,” said Eala, who was greeted by a roaring Filipino crowd after her opening-round victory in Abu Dhabi.

“She’s really making waves in many ways, and our friendship goes beyond tennis, so I’m very grateful for that.”

But the battle is far from over.

Eala, who is expected to boost her ranking to No. 43 following a victory in the main draw of the Abu Dhabi event, is stacked against a dangerous Belarusian who is fresh from shocking world No. 65 Paula Badosa of Spain, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, in the opening round.

Their game time has yet to be determined, but the 31-year-old compatriot of world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka will definitely be a tough nut to crack as she reached a ranking as high as No. 29 in 2022 before tumbling all the way to world No. 109 after losing all of her five final appearances.

Sasnovich’s recent finals stint was at the 2024 Budapest Grand Prix in Hungary, where she lost to world No. 16 Diana Shnaider of Russia.

Should Eala prevail, she will face the winner between world No. 11 and Russian netter Ekaterina Alexandro and world No. 43 Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine.

But first, Eala and Janice Tjen of Indonesia are teaming up in the women’s doubles against Filipino-Canadian netter Leylah Fernandez and Kristina Mladenovic of France in the Round of 16 at press time.

It will be the first time that both Tjen and Eala will team up in their professional careers since they first clashed at the Sao Paulo Open in Brazil last September.