ALEX Eala netted a 6-1, 6-3 win over Latvia’s Deniza Marcinkeva to advance in the second round of the W80 Rancho Santa Fe qualifying draw in California yesterday.
The Filipina tennis pride faces home bet Alana Smith next in the second round today for a seat in the main draw featuring some Top-200 players in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
Ms. Eala is ranked No. 281 as per the latest WTA list yesterday and found no problem taking care of her Latvian counterpart in only 75 minutes of play in the prestigious $80,000 tourney.
This is the second women’s pro tournament of the 17-year-old sensation after a historic win in the US Open juniors championships earlier this month.
Ms. Eala was the first Filipino to win any junior singles Grand Slam in her young but already decorated career that also included two junior doubles Slams in the 2020 Australian Open and 2021 French Open.
Her US open conquest catapulted her from No. 167 to No. 33 of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior rankings before returning to the women’s pro circuit in the W60 Templeton also in California last week.
She, however, settled for a second-round finish with hopes of surpassing it this time in a bid to claim her third pro title after winning in the 2021 W15 Manacor in Spain and the 2022 W25 Chiang Rai in Thailand. — John Bryan Ulanday