Alex Eala continued her Wimbledon Championships preparations after advancing to the third round of the J1 Roehampton tournament in London Thursday (Friday in Manila).
The second-seeded Eala hardly flexed her muscles in dispatching Italy’s Matilde Paoletti, 6-2, 6-0, to follow up her 6-4, 6-4 first-round triumph over Czech Republic’s Darja Vidmanova.
The win arranged Eala a Round of 16 meeting with 14th seed Mara Guth of Germany, who survived the pesky plays of Great Britain’s kylie Blichev, 6-4, 7-6 (6).
This would be the third time that Eala and Guth will be meeting in a junior tournament with Eala winning their two encounters, first in the semifinal of 2019 JA Osaka event, 6-3, 6-4, then the second round of the 2020 Roland Garros Championships, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.
Eala, however, was not so fortunate in the doubles after she and Indonesian Priska Madelyn Nugroho bowed to Czech Republic’s Barbora Palicova and Slovakia’s Radka Zelnickova, 6-4, 6-4, in the second round.
Eala and Nugroho, who were best known to win the 2020 Australian Open Junior Doubles title, were seeded second in the tournament and were coming off a 7-6 (1), 7-5 first-round win over German Nicole Rivkin and Belgian Hanne Vandewinkel.