FILIPINA tennis star Alex Eala clawed her way into the quarterfinals of the WTA Suzhou Open in China after outlasting Belgium’s Greet Minnen in a grueling three-set duel, 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 7-5, on Wednesday.

The marathon match lasted three hours and 18 minutes, with Eala finally breaking through in the 12th game of the deciding set to seal the hard-earned victory.

Eala edged out Minnen in the opening set via tiebreak, but the Belgian, ranked No. 106 in the world, fought back in the second set to force another tiebreaker and level the match.

The third set mirrored the tight exchanges of the first two frames, with Minnen rallying to even the score at 5-all. But the 19-year-old Filipina, currently ranked World No. 58, held serve and pounced on her opponent’s errors to close out the contest.

Statistically, Eala dominated the return game with 50 receiving points compared to Minnen’s 35. The Belgian, however, had the upper hand in service points, 84 to 77, but was undone by 10 costly double faults despite firing nine aces.

Eala, a product of the Rafa Nadal Academy, now advances to face Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic, World No. 70, who earlier dispatched Linda Fruhvirtova in the Round of 16.