MANILA – Alex Eala rallied from a set down to defeat Greece’s Michaela Laki, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, in the 2021 US Open Girls singles round-of-16 match at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Wednesday (Thursday in the Philippines).
Eala initially struggled with her shots but bounced back to reach her first-ever US Open Girls quarterfinals, where she will face Switzerland’s Sebastianna Scilipoti on Thursday night (Friday in the Philippines).
The Filipina teen tennis sensation won the initial two sets, but her opponent responded by ruling the next five sets to take a 5-2 lead. The no. 2 ranked Eala started an uprising in the eighth and ninth games to trim the first set deficit to 4-5, but the 15th-seeded Laki dominated the tenth game for a 1-0 lead.
Eala overcame a tough start in the second set to force a deadlock at 5-5. She held her serve in the pivotal Game 11 to get some breathing room before dispatching Laki in the 12th game to send the match to a winner-take-all third set.
With momentum on her side, Eala demonstrated her excellent skills as she clinched a 5-2- advantage. Laki did manage to close the gap to 5-4, but Eala stunned her opponent by winning the 10th game.
Eala’s dominance over Laki in the US Open Girls tournament got completed later in the day when the former thrashed the latter in the round-of-16 of the doubles event.
Eala and her Belgian partner Hanne Vandewinkel mauled Laki and Serbian Radka Zelnickova, 6-3, 3-6, 10-6, to book a quarterfinals berth.
With a slim 7-6 advantage in the third set, Eala and Vandewinkel ramped up their game, collecting three consecutive points to eliminate their opponents.
The Eala and Vandewinkel tandem will battle the survivor between the American pair of Elizabeth Coleman and Madison Sieg and the Croatian and Hungarian tandem of Petra Marcinnko and Natalia Szavamin./PN
