Alexandra “Alex” Eala of the Philippines is through to her third semifinal this season in the wake of removing Eden Silva of Great Britain, 6-1, 6-1, in the W60 Vitoria-Gasteiz quarterfinals in Spain on Friday.
The 17-year-old Filipino, with a career-high ranking of WTA World No. 317, acquired a 3-0 edge after Silva hit a backhand into the net.
Eala broke for the second chance to be at 5-0 by returning present with a forehand cross court winner.
Silva, the 26-year-old WTA World No. 352, got on the scoreboard by finishing off the 6th game with a forehand winner.
Serving for the set at 40-0, Eala committed three mistakes to carry the game to deuce. Two strike blunders by the Briton permitted Eala to take the first set, 6-1.
At 1-1 in the second set, Eala got a break of serve on her third opportunity courtesy of a Silva forehand mistake.
The Filipino teen champion, who sacked the 2021 W15 Manacor and 2022 W25 Chiang Rai titles, deflected a break point in the fourth game toward advance to 3-1.
She broke again then held serve, 5-1, after her forehand methodology shot yielded a backhand volley error.
With Silva remaining in the match, Eala procured a match point with a forehand down-the-line winner.
She covered off the match, 6-1, with a definitive backhand cross court volley in light of Silva’s second serve.
In the semifinals on Saturday, Eala will figure in a rematch against No. 3 seed Jessika Ponchet of France, the WTA World No. 195.
They conflicted over three weeks prior at the W25 Palma del Rio in Spain, where Ponchet posted a 6-2, 6-1 win in the second round.
Eala, who plays left-handed, started her run at the W60 Vitoria-Gasteiz with a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Spanish wildcard Berta Gutierrez Saiz.
This was followed by a success over Ya-Hsuan Lee of Chinese Taipei in the second round, 1-6, 6-4, 4-1, ret.
The W60 Vitoria-Gasteiz, held at the Peña Vitoriana Tenis Club, is a $60,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) event on the Women’s World Tennis Tour.
In the mean time, Eala’s older brother, Michael Francis “Miko” Eala, left the M15 Monastir competition in Tunisia on Thursday.
The 19-year-old qualifier lost to No. 3 seed Robert Strombachs of Germany, 5-7, 1-6, in the second round.
Miko and Abedallah Shelbayh of Jordan then, at that point, tumbled to No. 1 seeds Anis Ghorbel and Aziz Ouakaa of Tunisia in the quarterfinals, 4-6, 4-6.
Very much like the W60 Vitoria-Gasteiz, the $25,000 ITF Men’s World Tennis Tour event at Hotel Skanes Family Monastir is played on outside hard courts.
