Alex Eala of the Philippines eked out a 7-6(5), 6-7(1), 6-2 victory over fifth seed and former World No. 58 Jaqueline Cristian of Romania in the first round of the W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain on Wednesday.

The last match on Pista Amutio at the Peña Vitoriana Tenis Club between the WTA World No. 258 Eala and 123rd-ranked Cristian lasted for three hours and one minute.

At 2-2 in the opening set, Eala broke serve after five deuces then committed a love service hold to pull away to 4-2.

The 18-year-old Filipino served for the set twice at 5-2 and 5-4, but the 25-year-old Romanian fought on to equalize at 5-5 and took the lead for the first time at 6-5 by holding serve to love.

Eala, who has three ITF women’s singles championships, saved three set points to force a tiebreak, 6-6.

She took the early 4-1 lead courtesy of a forehand shot that clipped the net and dropped on the side of 14-time ITF singles titlist Cristian.

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The Romanian responded by collecting two mini-breaks, and the Filipino replied with her third mini-break to remain ahead at 5-3.

The tiebreak, marked by lengthy rallies, was claimed by Eala on her second set point, 7-6(5).

The 2022 US Open Juniors singles champion from the Philippines carried on in the second set by securing a 4-2 lead after Cristian let out a double fault.

She served for the match at 5-3, but was broken once more by her Romanian opponent who brought the second set to a decider.

The tiebreak had a different story as Cristian dominated it by firing two consecutive forehand winners for 3-1, hitting another winning forehand for 5-1, and unleashing a forehand crosscourt winner to claim the second set, 7-6(1).

Unfazed by the lopsided second-set tiebreak, Eala bounced back in the third set where she held serve to love for a 2-0 edge.

She zoomed to 4-1 by breaking serve on her second opportunity in the fifth game after her powerful forehand shot was unreturned.

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As she was serving for the match for the second time at 5-2, her feisty forehand at 40-30 yielded a long backhand from Cristian.

Eala screamed in delight when she clinched the hard-fought win on her second match point, 6-2, and reached the second round to face 19-year-old Chinese qualifier and world No. 840 Tianmi Mi on Thursday.

The Filipino two-time junior grand slam doubles winner is also scheduled to play alongside Marina Bassols Ribera of Spain in the quarterfinals later in the day versus Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia and Estelle Cascino of France.

Eala and Bassols Ribera kicked off their doubles campaign with a 6-2, 6-2 upset against second seeds Ankita Raina and Prarthana Thombare of India.

The W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz, also called the IV Araba World Tennis Tour Femenino, offers $100,000 in total prize money.

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