MANILA, Philippines – For the second straight day, Alex Eala took the court twice and emerged triumphant in both instances, earning a spot in the semifinals in singles and a finals berth in doubles.
The fifth seeded Filipina scored one of her biggest wins this year when she defeated fourth seed Yulia Starodubtseva of Ukraine 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, on Friday, July 19, in the singles quarterfinals of the ITF W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain.
Both Eala and Starodubtseva have recently reached their respective career highs in the world ranking, but Starodubtseva was largely considered the slight favorite in their quarters encounter owing to her recent performance in Wimbledon where she reached the second round.
The world No. 123 Ukrainian also made the main draw this year of the Australian Open and the French Open.
Following an exciting opener, the world No. 155 Eala had to survive seven deuces and four game points before finally converting on her fifth break point to draw even.
The 19-year-old Filipina appeared just about ready to romp off with the win when she built a 4-2 lead. But the 24-year-old Ukrainian put up her final stand, breaking Eala in the seventh game after four deuces then catching up in the eighth game to tie the count for the last time at 4-4.
Eala, though, steeled her nerves and copped the next two games to finish the match after two hours and 20 minutes.
Eala showed she was not daunted as she recovered from a sluggish start in the first set which saw her drop both her serves and face an early 1-3 deficit.
She broke the Starodubtseva a second time in the sixth game to level the count at 3-3, then kept the game tied until 6-6. After Eala jumped to a 4-1 lead in the tiebreak, Starodubtsewa showed that she too could stage a rally, drawing even at 5-5.
Eala proved steadier in the trenches, claiming the next two points to gain a one-set advantage.
Later in the day, Eala linked up with Estelle Cascino of France to register a 6-2, 6-3 thumping of Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez of Mexico and Noelia Zeballos Melgar of Bolivia.
The third seeded Eala and Cascino broke their rivals five times while dropping serve just once. The Filipino and French duo have not dropped a set thus far in the tournament.
Eala will be seeking her first singles finals appearance this year when she faces world No. 494 Portillo Ramirez in the semifinals on Saturday, July 20.
She and Cascino will attempt to win their second doubles title together when they take on Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria and Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia.
Karatancheva and Marcinkevica are coming off a massive upset in the semifinals when they nipped top seeds Eden Silva of Great Britain and Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine, 3-6, 6-3, 12-10. – Rappler.com