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MANILA, Philippines – Notching one of the biggest wins of her career in the opening round appears to have boosted Alex Eala’s confidence level.
The Filipina tennis teen star followed up her straight-set thrashing of old tormentor, former world No. 50 Anna Bondar of Hungary, with twin victories to advance even further in the 1st Empire Women’s Indoor 2024 in Trnava, Slovakia.
Eala blasted Lina Gjorcheska of Macedonia, 6-4, 6-2, to advance to the singles quarterfinal on Thursday, February 29, then over an hour later, picked up another victory in doubles action to claim a semifinal berth.
Eala returned to the TC Empire Trnava Tennis Complex for the women’s doubles quarterfinal where she and Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey overcame a one-set deficit to prevail over Ilona Georgiana Ghioroaie of Romania and Aneta Kucmova of the Czech Republic, 5-7, 6-3, 10-5.
The 18-year-old Eala braced herself for a tough second-round encounter against Gjorcheska, who eliminated former world No. 29 Urszula Radwanska of Poland in the opening round.
The Macedonian gave Eala everything she could handle until the eighth game of the opening set where the score remained tied, 4-4, before Eala took over, scoring the first service break of the match in the 10nth game to go up a set.
Eala then imposed her class over Gjorcheska in the second set where the Filipina snapped a 2-2 tie by breaking the Macedonian two more times to claim the next four games and end the match after an hour and 25 minutes.
With the victory, Eala booked a second straight quarterfinal appearance in the pro tour this year, just a week after also reaching the last eight of the ITF W75 Porto in Portugal.
The world No. 180 Eala will face 18-year-old Anastasia Gureva of Russia, currently 475th in the world, on Friday, March 1, with the winner earning a spot in the final four.
In the doubles semifinal, Eala and Sonmez will be in for another challenge when they go up against Lulu Sun of Switzerland and Moyuka Uchijima of Japan.
Sun and Uchijima upset second seeds Estelle Cascino of France and Jesika Maleckova of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinal. – Rappler.com
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