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Tennis: Alex Eala breezes past Canadian in US Open juniors

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Rosy Mina

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Filipino teen Alex Eala at the 2022 US Open Juniors. Screenshot from the SPOTV NOW app" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/news/09/05/alex.jpg"/><figcaption>Filipino teen Alex Eala at the 2022 US Open Juniors. <em>Screenshot from the SPOTV NOW app</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA – No. 10 seed Alex Eala of the Philippines began her US Open juniors run with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Annabelle Xu of Canada, Sunday in New York City.</p><p>The US Open girls’ tournament is the first juniors event of the season for 17-year-old Eala, who was the 2021 W15 Manacor and 2022 W25 Chiang Rai champion on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women’s World Tennis Tour.</p><p>The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) World No. 297 has two girls’ doubles grand slam titles from the 2020 Australian Open and 2021 Roland Garros.</p><p>As for the junior slam singles, the former ITF Juniors World No. 2 was a semifinalist in the 2020 Roland Garros and quarterfinalist in the 2021 US Open. </p><p>In her comeback to Flushing Meadows on Court 6 of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Eala quickly gained a 3-0 lead.</p><p>Xu, however, pointed out a scoring error, which caused the players to resume play at deuce in the third game. </p><p>The 18-year-old Canadian broke serve to be at 1-2, leveled at 2-2 with an ace, and broke back in the seventh game to trail at 3-4.</p><p>The Filipino responded by earning three break points in the following game. She converted the third one by firing a cross-court forehand that forced a backhand slice error.</p><p>Serving for the set at 5-3, Eala earned two set points via a forehand down-the-line winner and secured the first set, 6-3, on her second chance with a forehand winner.</p><p>Eala proceeded to consolidate her lead in the second set, 4-0, with the Rafa Nadal Academy player overcoming four deuces each in the first and third games.</p><p>In the fifth game, Xu saved a break point by forcing a forehand service return error but eventually awarded Eala a break due to a double fault.</p><p>As Eala was serving for the match at 5-0, she blasted an ace down the T and set off a forehand down-the-line approach shot to be at 30-0.</p><p>She gained two match points after Xu hit a backhand slice long, but was unable to convert them after making two consecutive errors.</p><p>At 40-40, a backhand error by Xu gave Eala her third match point, and a long backhand sealed the match in favor of the Filipino, 6-0.</p><p>In the second round, Eala will face Nina Vargova of Slovakia, 16, who also served a bagel in the opening round versus Mia Slama of the United States, 6-0, 7-6(5). </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/06/12/21/alex-eala-french-open-doubles-champion">READ: Alex Eala, Russia’s Selekhmeteva win French Open girls&#x27; doubles title</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/09/11/21/us-open-eala-vandewinkel-fall-in-girls-doubles-play">READ: Eala, Belgian Hanne Vandewinkel fall in girls doubles tournament</a></li></ul><p>From being an ITF Junior Player Grants Programme recipient in 2021, Eala is currently part of the 2022 ITF Grand Slam Development Programme.</p><p>Catch the 2022 US Open coverage on the SPOTV channels on SKY Cable and Cignal TV, and on the SPOTV NOW app available on Google Play Store and App Store. </p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</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=1989565" 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>

Alex Eala of the Philippines began her US Open juniors run with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Annabelle Xu of Canada, Sunday in New York City.