MANILA – Filipina teen tennis star Alex Eala writes history after hailing as the champion of the 2020 Australian Open girls’ doubles event on Jan.31 in Melbourne, Australia.
Eala made the significant feat after teaming up with Priska Madelyn Nugroho of Indonesia in eking out a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Slovenia’s Ziva Falkner and Great Britain’s Matilda Mutavdzic.
The tandem nearly blanked their opponents in the first set, having served a bettered percentage aside from scoring 9 winners compared to just 1 from Falkner and Mutavdzic.
Eala and Nugroho surged to a 5-0 lead early before the European tandem tallied a game in the scoreboard, 1-5. However, the duo did not give the opposing side any chance to mount a comeback, closing the opening frame in the 7th game, 6-1.
After a 1-0 start in the second set, Falkner and Mutavdzic committed crucial double faults in serves that enabled the eventual champions to create another separation, 3-1. The runner-up finishers tried to hold on in the match, but breaks from the champions in the third and seventh game proved costly to them.
Eala, who is ranked eighth in the junior world rankings with 1465 points, pulled off a shocker in the semifinals after usurping the top-seeded tandem of Kamilla Bartone of Latvia and Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic.
The Filipina tennis star also participated in the girls’ singles competition but only until the third round after falling to Hong Yi Cody Wong of Hong Kong, 1-6 3-6./PN
