By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Filipina tennis superstar Alex Eala passed her first test with flying colors in the ongoing International Tennis Federation (ITF) USA 36A tournament on August 13, 2024.
Eala pulled off a dominant outing after sweeping Julia Riera from Argentina- 6.3, 6.1- to advance to the Round of 16 of another ITF circuit tournament.
Fresh off a quarterfinal finish during the Koser Jewelers Tennis Challenge in Landisville, Pennsylvania, several days ago, Eala showed tremendous stamina to immediately jump off to a convincing start in the USA 36A.
Riera stood no chance against the waxing hot Eala as the Filipina ace pummeled her with her signature down-the-line forehand shots.
With no defensive tactic effectively working for the Argentinian challenger, Riera was forced to fight fire with fire and went toe-to-toe against Eala in the baseline.
However, that risky move didn’t allow Riera to pick up some momentum as Eala broke two of her service possessions in the first set to comfortably take a 1-0 lead.
It was a disaster in the following set as Eala continued to weaver her magic in the court, tallying several groundstroke bombs that piled her scoring in the first phase of the last period.
Midway through the second set, Riera waved the white flag when she barely picked up Eala’s drop shots and shook her head in disappointment.
Eala then capped off her Round of 32 victory with a huge forehand bomb and scored two aces in five service possessions to advance to the Round of 16.
As of this writing, Eala’s next opponent in the Round of 16 is yet to be determined as the tournament’s Round of 32 phase will finish today, in the morning.
