Alex Eala punches ticket to 2020 French Open quarterfinals

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

Filipina tennis sensation Alex Eala entered her first-ever grand-slam juniors’ singles quarterfinals berth of her career after outlasting Leyre Romero Gomaz of Spain, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.

Eala asserted her mastery early on after dumping the Spaniard in the first set, only allowing her to score one and held all of her services to come in comfortable heading into the second set.

However, Gomaz had a run of her own, fighting back in the next set after picking up her volley rhythm that put her into a dominant 5-1 lead.

The Filipina tried to make things close in the second set after breaking the Spaniard’s serve but wasn’t able to hold on and went back to square one with the match tied at 1-set apiece.

Trying to gain back the momentum, Eala came in energized in the third set and showed no mercy after unleashing on-point baseline hits that proved to be too much for Gomaz.

Eala then put on the exclamation point, fired heavier groundstrokes to close the match in a convincing last set, 6-1.

In the quarterfinals, the Filipina ace will be facing the tough Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic and will seek to advance up to the Roland Garros juniors’ finals.