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Tennis: Eala, Kawaguchi upset 3rd seeds to reach W100 Tokyo semis

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Rosy Mina

Alex Eala and Natsumi Kawaguchi continued their doubles run at the W100 Tokyo in Japan by ousting No. 3 seeds Natela Dzalamidze of Georgia and Sofya Lansere of Russia in the quarterfinals on Thursday, 4-6, 6-3, 12-10.The Filipino and Japanese left-handers took the early lead at Court 2 of the Ariake Tennis Park by breaking serve on the deciding point at deuce, 3-1.Dzalamidze and Lansere leveled at 3-3 after Eala and Kawaguchi hit a long backhand lob.After the pairs exchanged breaks, the Georgian and Russian broke again to serve for the set at 5-4.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/09/06/23/eala-outlasted-by-5th-seed-in-w100-tokyo-2nd-round">Tennis: Alex Eala outlasted by 5th seed in W100 Tokyo 2nd round</a></li></ul>At 40-0, Dzalamidze and Lansere struck a forehand overhead winner to nab the first set, 6-4.Eala and Kawaguchi, who scored a 6-4, 7-6(3) win over Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum and Peangtarn Plipuech in the opening round, recovered in the second set by advancing to 4-1.Despite conceding the seventh game with a backhand error, Eala and Kawaguchi broke back to serve for the set at 5-3.With the score at 40-30, Eala fired a forehand down-the-line shot to seal the second set and force a super tiebreak, 6-3.The decider was close until the end, with Eala and Kawaguchi saving two match points at 8-9 and 9-10 by letting out gutsy forehand winners.At 10-10, two-time junior grand slam doubles champion Eala blasted a winning backhand return of serve to earn a match point.Eala and Kawaguchi conquered the quarterfinal clash at 12-10 after Dzalamidze and Lansere committed a backhand service return error.In the semifinals, the Filipino-Japanese duo will face British second seeds and 2022 WTA Granby champions Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls or Arianne Hartono of the Netherlands and Xiaodi You of China. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/08/17/23/tennis-eala-soars-into-singles-r2-doubles-semis-at-w25-aldershot">Tennis: Alex Eala soars into singles R2, doubles semis at W25 Aldershot</a></li></ul>Eala, 18, also competed in the singles event of the $100,000 ITF tournament as the qualifying top seed who posted straight-sets wins over Kanako Morisaki of Japan and No. 9 seed Anastasia Kulikova of Finland.The 195th-ranked player from the Philippines went on to eliminate wildcard Kawaguchi in the first round of the main draw, 6-4, 6-3.In the second round, the four-time ITF women’s singles titlist and 2022 US Open Juniors singles winner fell to WTA World No. 111 and fifth seed Kimberly Birrell of Australia, 6-4, 6-7(5), 2-6. <div>RELATED VIDEO</div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vWmVMVrgCys?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></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 and Natsumi Kawaguchi continued their doubles run at the W100 Tokyo in Japan by ousting No. 3 seeds Natela Dzalamidze of Georgia and Sofya Lansere of Russia in the quarterfinals on Thursday, 4-6, 6-3, 12-10.