ADVERTISEMENT

Manila Bulletin

Sports

Eala scores twin kill in Spain tourney

Sports

Eala scores twin kill in Spain tourney

By Kristel Satumbaga-Villar

At A Glance

Alex Eala overcame her higher-ranked rival Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine, 7-6 (5), 6-4, to book a semifinal berth in the W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament in Spain on Friday, July 19.

Alex Eala overcame her higher-ranked rival Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine, 7-6 (5), 6-4, to book a semifinal berth in the W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament in Spain on Friday, July 19.

alex eala — Alex Eala inches closer to singles and doubles titles in Spain. (File Photo)

The fifth-seeded Eala bucked her erratic serves to outhustle the fourth-ranked Starodubtseva and inch closer to the crown in this $100,000 event.

Eala, however, is expected to have a tougher task ahead as she arranged a Final Four date with Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez of Mexico, who recovered from an opening set loss to turn back Australia’s Melisa Ercan, 2-6, 6-5, 7-6 (5).

On paper, Eala is ahead of her 25-year-old rival on rankings with the Filipino bet at No. 155 and Ramirez at No. 494.

Ramirez has also yet to win her third ITF crown since last capturing the W15 Cancun in 2019.

Eala, for her part, is searching for her fifth ITF singles title and first this year.

Another win for Eala against the Mexican, would also reaffirm her mastery over her rival after the Filipina and her French partner Estelle Cascino routed Ramirez and Noella Zeballos Melgas of Bolivia, 6-2, 6-3, to barge into the doubles finals.

Eala and Cascino battle Lia Karatancheva and Diana Marcinkevica for the crown after the Bulgarian-Latvian tandem stunned top seed Eden Silva of Great Britain and Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine, 3-6, 6-3, 12-10.

Eala is looking at third ITF doubles crown and second with Cascino after they ruled the W75 Croissy-Beaubourg in France last March.

Related Tags

Alex Eala

ADVERTISEMENT

.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }

{{ item.section_name }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ item.subtitle }}

Read More

function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });

Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.