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Romanian tennis player Irina Begu on Tuesday advanced to the women's singles second round of the Miami Open tournament, prize pool 8.8 million US dollars, after defeating Philippines' Alexandra Eala 6-2 7-5.
It took Begu, 32, world number 34, almost two hours --1 h 51 min -- to prevail over the 17-year-old player, who is ranked 219th in the world, told Agerpres.
Eala started bravely and led 2-0, but Begu came back and won six consecutive sets, winning 6-2 in the first set.
In the second set, Eala was up 5-1, but missed five set points as Begu managed to turn the score around and win 7-5 after a new series of six sets.
Begu finished with four aces and two double faults, while Eala had six double faults.
For her performance in Miami so far, Begu won 30,885 US dollars and 35 WTA singles points, and in the second round she will play Chinese Qinwen Zheng, 20, world number 23, seed number 23.
There are two other Romanians are on the singles draw in Florida: Sorana Cirstea, who will meet Mexican Fernanda Contreras Gomez in the first round, and Ana Bogdan, who will face American Robin Montgomery in the opening round.
In women's doubles, Monica Niculescu is paired up with Polish Alicja Rosolska and will play the Kirsten Flipkens (Belgium)/Bethanie Mattek-Sands (US) double in the first round.
