Alex Eala stumbled in her singles bid but marched into the doubles semifinal with Russian partner Oksana Selekhmeteva in the W25 Platja D’Aro tournament in Spain Thursday, May 20.
Eala yielded to Spaniard Irene Burillo Escorihuela, 6-2, 6-4, in the second round that lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes before coming back a few hours later to stun top seed Russians Vlada Koval and Sofya Lansere, 6-3, 2-6, 12-10, with Selekhmeteva.
This is Eala’s first doubles match in the pros and is already turning heads with 18-year-old Selekhmeteva, who won the 2019 US Open Junior Girls Doubles title with a Latvian Kamilla Bartone.
Eala and Selekhmeteva are coming off a 6-2, 6-0 first-round thumping of Spain’s Valeria Koussenkova and South Africa’s Warona Mdlulwa in the 16-pair draw.
The Filipino-Russian pair struggled to keep their momentum after a commanding opening set by trailing Koval and Lansere 5-0 and losing the second frame.
Eala and Selekhemeteva regained their composure in the third despite stiff resistance from their Russian rivals, keeping control of their 6-3 lead en route to the match win.
The feat set up Eala and Selekhmeteva a semis meeting with unseeded Dutch pair Isabelle Haverlag and Suzan Lamens, who also pulled off a 6-2, 3-6, 10-7 upset win over third seed Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain and Ukraine’s Valeriya Strakhova.