Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 18) – Filipino tennis sensation Alex Eala rebounded from her unlucky Wimbledon run as she clinched the JA Trofeo Bonfiglio singles and doubles girls titles in Milan, Italy.
Eala and American partner Madison Sieg beat the pair of Croatia’s Lucija Ciric Bagaric and Belgium’s Sofia Costoulas, 6-4, 4-6, 13-11, in the doubles final on Saturday night (Philippine time).
Eala and Sieg, the tournament top seeds, cruised to an early 3-0 lead in the first set but their opponents broke back to forge a 4-4 tie. The Filipino-American duo won the last two games.
In the second set, Bagaric and Costoulas engaged the Eala-Sieg pair in a tighter battle, with the former hurdling the last two games to force a deciding third set.
The thrilling final set saw Eala and Sieg slugging it out with Bagaric and Costoulas. The tournament top seeds sealed the title after gaining enough momentum in the homestretch.
Eala and Sieg edged the pair of Romania’s Stefania Bojica and Portugal’s Matilde Jorge (6-4, 6-1) in the first round, the Russian duo of Anastasia Gureva and Ekaterina Maklakova (6-3, 3-6, 10-7) in the second round, another Russian tandem of Yaroslava Bartashevich and Ksenia Zaytseva (6-4, 6-3) in the quarterfinals, and the Russian pair of Kira Pavlova and Diana Shnaider (6-3, 6-4) in the semifinals.
In singles play on Sunday night (Philippine time), Eala conquered Czech Republic’s Nikola Bartunkova with a 6-3, 6-3 scoreline in the finals.
The 16-year-old Filipino tennis ace, also the tournament top seed in the girls singles meet, dominated the match from the start as she established a 5-1 lead in the first set for an early romp.
Bartunkova upped her game in the second set as she narrowed the deficit to 3-5 over Eala, after she forced the Filipino in committing some errors. Eala secured the singles title after she held her serve in the ninth game.
Eala defeated Czech tennis ace Brenda Fruhvirtova (6-1, 6-2) in the first round, Canada’s Kayla Cross (6-1, 6-1) in the second round, Russia’s Zaytseva (7-6, 4-6, 7-5) in the third round, Belgium’s Costoulas (7-6, 4-6, 6-4) in the quarterfinals, and another Russian foe Mirra Andreeva (7-6, 6-2) in the semifinals.
Eala is currently the third-best ranked female juniors player in the world, based on the International Tennis Federation rankings.
