MANILA – Filipino Alexandra Eala and Indonesian Janice Tjen defeated Canadian Leylah Fernandez and French Kristina Mladenovic, 7-5, 0-6, 10-6, Tuesday night (Wednesday morning in PH) to reach the Abu Dhabi Open doubles quarterfinals at Zayed Sports City International Tennis Centre in the United Arab Emirates.
Eala and Tjen will meet the winner between second seeds Cristina Bucsa of Spain and Shuai Zhang of China and twins Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine.
In other doubles results, Sofia Kenin and Desirae Krawczyk eliminated top seeds Asia Muhammad of the United States and Routliffe of New Zealand, 6-1, 2-6, 12-10, to arrange a quarterfinal duel with Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who won over Yifan Xu of China and Liudmila Samsonova, 6-2, 7-5.
Third seeds Ellen Perez of Australia and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands outplayed Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Vera Zvonareva, 7-6 (4), 6-4, to advance against Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia and Maya Joint of Australia, 6-2, 6-1 winners over Teodora Kostovic of Serbia and Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine.
Fourth seeds Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia and Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain triumphed over Darija Jurak Schreiber of Croatia and Katarzyna Piter of Poland, 7-5, 6-3, to set up a meeting with Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Irina Khromacheva, who beat Chan Hao-ching of Chinese Taipei and Clara Tauson of Denmark, 7-5, 6-3.
Meanwhile, the world No. 45 Eala will face Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in the singles round-of-16 Wednesday.
No. 5 seed Liudmila Samsonova of Russia ousted Tjen, 6-2, 6-2.
Samsonova will be up against Hailey Baptiste of the US, who shocked compatriot and No. 4 seed Emma Navarro, 7-6 (6), 0-6, 6-3.
McCartney Kessler of the US toppled No. 6 seed Fernandez, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the quarterfinals against No. 3 seed Tauson, who scored a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Simona Waltert of Switzerland.
Other second round matches pit defending champion and No. 1 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland against Sonay Kartal of Great Britain; No. 2 seed Alexandrova against Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine; and No. 7 seed Ostapenko against Sara Bejlek of Czech Republic. (PNA)