Alexandra Eala has won the Lexus Birmingham Open for her first career grass-court title, recovering from a set and a break down to beat Nikola Bartunkova 5-7 6-3 7-5 in the final. At a WTA 125 grass event that lost six of its eight seeds before the quarterfinals, the two highest-ranked players in the draw were the ones left on Sunday - top seed Eala at No. 37 and fifth seed Bartunkova at No. 69 - and it was the Filipina who came through a final that ran to its closing game. The title is her sixth across the Challenger and ITF levels, and her first on grass after the previous five came on hard courts. The victory over Bartunkova was also her only one earned against the top 100-ranked opponent on the road to the title in Birmingham.
Eala recovers from a set and a break down to take the title
Bartunkova drew first, taking a tight opening set 7-5 and breaking early in the second to move a set and a break clear. From there Eala turned it. She broke back in the second game to level the set, broke again in the sixth to move ahead, and served out the second 6-3. The decider stayed on serve until the closing stretch, with Bartunkova holding the initiative but unable to use it: she let three break points slip in the fourth game and was broken in the fifth. Serving for the match at 5-4, Eala was broken to love, but she retrieved the advantage immediately in the eleventh game and held her nerve in the twelfth, saving three more Bartunkova break points before closing it out 7-5. The Czech player had put a good battle, especially trying to deny the Filipino's victory in third set, producing 31 pressure points. Eala created 24 on return side - the less than faced on own serve, but was more efficient in saving those (19/31) than her defeated opponent (13/24).
Eala's road to the final
Eala reached the final without dropping a set until the semifinals. She opened with a 6-0 6-2 win over Priscilla Hon, then handled qualifier Alina Charaeva 6-2 7-5 and Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-3 6-2, a quarterfinal in which she saved five of the six break points she faced and won 17 of 23 serve pressure points. She did it with almost nothing from her serve - not a single ace in either her quarterfinal or semifinal - leaning instead on return pressure and steadiness from the baseline. Her one stumble came against Rebeka Masarova, the qualifier who had earlier ended third seed Tatjana Maria: Eala took the first set 6-2, dropped the second 4-6, then closed it out 6-3.
Bartunkova survived three battles to get there
Bartunkova arrived in the final having spent far longer on court. Her opening match was a 3-6 6-3 7-5 recovery against Harriet Dart, in which she saved eight of ten break points and held up under 41 serve pressure points on her own serve. She edged lucky loser Gabriela Knutson 6-4 7-6(4), then won a quarterfinal war with 17-year-old Mika Stojsavljevic 6-4 6-7(8) 7-6(4), two tiebreaks in which she struck nine aces and won 15 of 17 serve pressure points. In the semifinal she ended the run of Ashlyn Krueger, who had not dropped a set all week, taking it 6-4 7-6(7) on the back of a second-set tiebreak. In what was effectively her first tournament on grass, the run to the final is a breakthrough.
Ranking movements
The winner of Lexus Birmingham Open advances by 4 places in WTA Rankings, moving up to 33th. Nikola Bartunkova gets a boost of 8 spots up to 61st - her career's best ranking at the age of 20. The 17 years-old quarterfinalist Mika Stojsavljevic who made the best run out of the Brits advances by 27 places up to 261st - also career's peak rank at the moment.