At new career-high, Eala off to good start in W25 Spain

Rosy Mina

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Alex Eala at the W60 Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain. Photo courtesy of Peña Vitoriana." src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/sports/07/26/20220726-eala.jpg"/><figcaption>Alex Eala at the W60 Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain. <em>Photo courtesy of Peña Vitoriana.</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA – No. 4 seed Alex Eala of the Philippines, who climbed 35 places to break into the WTA Top 300, opened her campaign at the W25 El Espinar/Segovia in Spain on Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Russian Maria Bondarenko. </p><p>At a career-high ranking of WTA World No. 282, the 17-year-old Eala began her first-round match at Court 2 of Complejo Deportivo Open Castilla y Leon by securing a 3-0 lead.</p><p>The Rafa Nadal Academy player got past deuce in the opening game, overcame three more in the second game, and won the third game at 40-30.</p><p>Bondarenko, the 19-year-old WTA World No. 380, withstood deuce to get on the scoreboard, fired an ace to trail at 2-4, and finally broke serve to be at 3-4.</p><p>Eala broke back after getting over two deuces, 5-3, and Bondarenko responded with another break to reduce the gap to 4-5.</p><p>As the Russian was serving to stay in the set, she was faced by three set points. The Filipino broke on her third opportunity, 6-4, to be up a set.</p><p>Similar to how the first set started, Eala zoomed to 3-0 and maintained her lead at 4-2 in the second set.</p><p>She held serve after two deuces, 5-2, and Bondarenko replied with a service hold to be at 3-5.</p><p>As she was serving for the match, Eala earned two match points and claimed the win on her first chance, 6-3.</p><p>This was the first meeting of Eala and Bondarenko on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women’s World Tennis Tour, but they faced off as juniors in the Roland Garros girls’ doubles final in 2021.</p><p>Eala and Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia bagged the French Open girls’ doubles title against Bondarenko and Amarissa Kiara Toth of Hungary in straight sets.</p><p>It was the second junior grand slam doubles crown for Eala, a former ITF Juniors World No. 2, after her maiden victory at the 2020 Australian Open girls’ event.</p><p>Meanwhile, in the W25 El Espinar/Segovia second round scheduled on Wednesday, Eala will play against WTA World No. 532 Amy Zhu of the United States, 27, for the second time.</p><p>In April, Eala saw off Zhu in Round 2 of the W25 Chiang Rai second leg in Thailand, 6-3, 6-1.</p><p>Eala was coming off a title victory in the first leg of W25 Chiang Rai, which was her second pro championship after winning the W15 Manacor in Spain in 2021.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/23/22/tennis-no-3-seed-halts-alex-ealas-w60-spain-run">Tennis: No. 3 seed halts Alex Eala’s W60 Spain run</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/23/22/alex-eala-stuns-briton-to-reach-w60-spain-semifinals">Alex Eala stuns Briton to reach W60 Spain semifinals</a></li></ul><div><strong>RELATED LINK</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1705416" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

Eala opened her campaign at the W25 El Espinar/Segovia in Spain on Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Russian opponent Maria Bondarenko.

At new career-high, Eala off to good start in W25 Spain | ABS-CBN

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At new career-high, Eala off to good start in W25 Spain

At new career-high, Eala off to good start in W25 Spain

Rosy Mina

Published Jul 27, 2022 04:23 AM PHT

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Alex Eala

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