ealaCOMING off a well-needed respite, Alex Eala teamed up with Lithuania’s Justina Mikulskyte late Wednesday night to whip hometown bets Ela Platenikova and Nina Vargova 6-1, 6-0 to enter the quarterfinals of the $60,000 Second Empire Women’s indoor tournament in Trnava, Slovakia.
Eala and Mikulskyte needed less than an hour to dispatch the hometown pair and power their way into the quarterfinals of the W60 tournament organized by the International Tennis Federation.
They were set to go up against the fourth-seeded German tandem of Vivian Heisen and Julia Lohoff, who subdued Russia’s Maria Bondarenko and Romania’s Ilona Georgiana Ghioroaie 6-4, 7-5 last night for a spot in the semifinal round.
Ranked No. 220 in the Women’s Tennis Association world ratings, Eala actually faced double duty as she was to tackle Englishwoman Sonay Kartal earlier in the day in the second round of singles play after routing No. 6 seed Leyre Romero Gormaz of Spain 6-1, 6-0 last Tuesday.
A recipient of the President’s Award of the Philippine Sportswriters Association during the last PSA Awards Night last Monday, the pretty Pinay southpaw is playing in her first tournament in more than a month after falling in the first round of the Thailand Toyota Open in Hua Tin, Thailand last January.
