Alex Eala and Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva dumped Belgium’s Sofia Costoulas and Finland’s Laura Hietaranta, 6-3, 6-1, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Roland Garros Girls Doubles Tuesday night, June 8.
The top-seeded Eala and Selekhmeteva hardly broke a sweat, as they needed only 57 minutes in disposing of their rivals to inch closer to the crown.
The victory arranged the Filipino-Russian duo a Final 8 date with the winner between Czech Republic’s Barbara Palicova and Canada’s Annabelle Xiu, and fifth seed tandem Petra Marcinko of Croatia and Natalia Szabanin of Hungary.
Eala and Selekhmeteva, who reached the finals of the $25,000 Spanish tournament last May, dictated the pace throughout and only dropped their serve twice.
They pulled away from a 2-2 deadlock to a first-set win that lasted 30 minutes, and became more aggressive in the second frame with a quick 4-0 edge en route to the match win.
Both Eala and Selekhmeteva are gunning for their second Grand Slam Junior Doubles crown, with the Filipino bet winning her first at the 2020 Australian Open with Indonesian partner Priska Madelyn Nugroho.
Selekhmeteva, 18, meanwhile, won her the 2019 US Open Girls Doubles title with Latvia’s Kamilla Bartone.