'Happy' Eala reaches US Open second round for second straight year

Alexandra Eala advanced to the second round of the US Open for the second consecutive year with a convincing straight-sets win over American qualifier Mary Stoiana in Tuesday night's session.

US Open: Scores | Order of play | Draws

Playing in front of a packed crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium, Eala saved two break points in the opening game and stormed to a 5-0 lead. Stoiana, making her Grand Slam main-draw debut, managed to get on the scoreboard in the sixth game, but Eala held to love to close out the opening set 6-1.

Eala again faced break points in her first two service games of the second set but saved them both. After breaking for a 3-2 lead, she never looked back, closing out the match 6-1, 6-2 in 1 hour, 17 minutes.

"I'm very happy with my level today," Eala said in her post-match press conference. "It's never easy, especially in the first round of a tournament -- of the US Open nonetheless -- and I think Mary has been having some good weeks. So yeah, I'm super happy."

The most telling stat of the night for Stoiana was her break-point conversion rate. She failed to convert any of her six break-point opportunities, while Eala converted four of eight.

Eala's win continues a strong run on the North American hard-court swing, highlighted by her title run in Washington, D.C. She has now won nine of her past 11 matches on hard courts since Wimbledon, where she reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

The Filipina will face Ukraine's Oleksandra Oliynykova in the second round. Oliynykova defeated American wild card Reese Brantmeier 6-4, 6-4 in her first-round match. She also leads Eala 1-0 in their WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz head-to-head, winning in three sets in Strasbourg earlier this year.

"It was a really good match. Very intense, quite tight," Eala said. "Looking back at that match, there are a lot of things that I could have done better. It's been a couple of months. I think I've developed a lot in said months. So all I can do is come into that match with the same mindset as today -- the same mindset or an even better mindset than I've had these past couple of weeks -- and try to do my best."