Alex Eala opens 2021 with a dominant win in first pro tourney of the year

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

Nothing new.

A new year but still the same beast.

After spending the holiday season in the Philippines, Alex Eala is back at it, winning her first professional tournament match of the year after crushing Italian foe Anna Paradisi, 6-1, 6-2, during the W15 Manacor ITF Tournament.

Eala entered the grand tennis tournament as a Junior Reserve player but that did not stop her from showing flashes of brilliance after drawing first blood.

Paradisi, her opponent, is a fellow scholar of the Rafael Nadal Academy and is also one of the potential tennis aces the academy is honing.

Questions were quickly answered as the Filipina continued her stellar 2020 momentum when she broke Paradisi’s service and cruised through with familiar forehand winners.

When Eala got her groove, she then went straight to business and demolished the Italian in two sets, showing no mercy with her baseline game still on fire.

The currently ranked third in the ITF World Juniors’ ranking will be facing 21-year-old Seone Mendez from Australia as she moves to the second round of the tourney.