TOURNAMENT second seed Alex Eala foiled Spains Leyre Romero, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, on Wednesday night to move to within three victories of a potential French Open girls’ championship at Roland Garros in Paris.
Booking a seat in a Grand Slam event quarterfinal is already an achievement by itself for Eala, who shed moved on from her loss in doubles with American partner Elvina Kalieva the other day.
Eala, ranked No. 4 in the world, had to dig deep against the stubborn Spaniard.
After handily taking the first set, the 15-year-old Rafa Nadal Academy scholar in Mallorca (Spain) couldn’t react against Romero’s gritty comeback in the second set.
Eala dropped her serve in the second frame the 54th-ranked Romero raced to a 5-1 lead. The Filipino fought back and made it 4-5, but Romero held fort to force the decider.
Eala roared back in the third set and strung the first four games to wrest the lead she never relinquished.
Eala is playing on Paris clay waving the girls doubles title she won with Indonesian Priska Nugroho at the 2020 Australian Open earlier this year.
Next up for Eala in the last eight on Thursday night is the Czech Republic’s Linda Noskova, who upset France’s Flavie Brugnone, 6-1, 6-2.