Southeast Asia’s rising tennis stars Alex Eala and Janice Tjen teamed up for the first time and held their ground to reach the doubles quarterfinals of the Abu Dhabi Open.
The Filipino-Indonesian pair ousted Leylah Fernandez of Canada and France’s Kristina Mladenovic in a thrilling three-set match, 7-5, 3-6, 10-6, in Wednesday’s round of 16 (Philippine time).
In the decisive match tiebreak, Eala and Tjen rattled off four straight points to close out the win, despite a late rally from the Canadian-French duo. Earlier, the Southeast Asian pair had clawed back from a 0-2 deficit in the first set, holding set point at 5-4 before their opponents forced a race to two. Eala and Tjen responded with a gutsy 11th-game victory, carrying that momentum into the closing points.
Eala also advanced in the singles bracket, setting up a round-of-16 clash against Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Tjen, meanwhile, bowed out of singles after a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova earlier in the day.
Eala opened her singles campaign with a 6-4, 6-3 win over close friend Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey. FROM THE WIRES