FILIPINA tennis ace Alex Eala and Russian partner Oksana Selekhmeteva moved on to the quarterfinals of the 2021 French Open girls’ doubles tournament with a 6-3, 6-1 win over the dup of Sofia Costoulas of Belgium and Laura Hietaranta of Finland on Tuesday night at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France.
Eala and Selekhmeteva brought their A-game and did not take long to wrap up the victory, which they claimed in just 57 minutes. Their opponents got the first game in the first set but that just sparked Eala and her Russian teammate who broke Costoulas and Hietaranta’s serve in the fifth, seventh and ninth game to get the easy 6-3 first set win.
Riding the momentum of their first set conquest, Eala and Selekhmeteva zoomed off to a 4-0 lead in the second before their opponents got on the board. Later, the 16-year old Filipina ace finished the game with a precise forehand winner that gave them the second set, 6-1, and the match.
Eala, who is the world’s no. 3 ranked juniors player, and Selekhmeteva, who is ranked 10th, will take on either the pair of Barbara Palicova of the Czech Republic and Annabelle Xu of Canada, or the due of USA’s Qavia Lopez and French Mathilde Ngijol-Carre in the quarterfinals. (JNP)