Alex Eala, partner clinch Milan doubles title

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Alex Eala and American partner Madison Sieg raised the championship trophy of the 2021 ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors’ JA tournament after beating the duo of Lucija Ciric Bagaric and Sofia Costoulas, 6-4, 4-6, 13-11.

The nerve racking match was one of the most thrilling matches in the tournament and had to go down to an insane tiebreaker in the third set.

Eala and Sieg seemed to take control of the tempo of the match but the Croatian pairing stormed back in the second set and had a run of their own to equalize the match at 1-1.

In the intense tiebreaker, Eala and Sieg had to dig deep and unleash every offensive facet they had in their game as they were met with the power of Bagaric and Costoulas since the second set.

Eala was able to hold the baseline and contest with the forehand bombs of the opposition while Sieg did a tremendous job of defending their net area.

Sieg’s solid net game couldn’t have come at a better time in the crucial third set as she scored three straight points on the net to help them break through.

This is Eala’s second clay court title of the year after claiming tennis supremacy during the prestigious 2021 French Open doubles juniors.