Alexandra “Alex” Eala reached a milestone yesterday in the 2020 Australian Open.
The 14-year-old Eala won her first ever girls doubles crown in the junior division in Melbourne Park.
Eala and Indonesian partner Priska Madelyn Nugroho fought their way to a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over unseeded Matilda Mutavdzic of Great Britain and Ziva Faulkner of Slovenia.
This is an historic win in Philippine tennis with Eala becoming only the second Filipino Grand Slam champion in the Australian Open.
Eleven years ago, Francis Casey Alcantara and Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipeh claimed the 2009 Australian Open boys doubles title.
Eala’s participation was made possible with the help of the Rafa Nadal Academy, and her coach Daniel Gomez.
Pre-tournament conversations with Nadal, who is the top seeded player in the men’s singles, inspired Eala to be at her best.
Nadal bowed out of contention after losing to fifth seeded Dominic Thiem, 7-6(4), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), in the quarterfinals.
Eala and the 16-year-old Nugroho had little trouble in taking the first set, as they waltzed their way to a 5-0 lead, with Nugroho’s ace, a forced forehand error and a forehand winner giving the last three points which sealed the match.
Mutavdzic and Faulkner kept it close in the second set, 2-3.
But after taking the sixth game, on a couple of forehand winners, they managed to hold serve, 4-2.
And this gave the world no. 9 ranked Eala and Nugroho the momentum to take the last two points.
Eala and Nugroho, who are seeded fourth, reached the finals after they upset top seeds Kamilla Bartone of Latvia and Czech Linda Fruhvirtova, 1-6, 7-5, 10-8 in the thrilling semis which lasted one hour and 22 minutes.
The Southeast Asian pair recovered from a first set meltdown, then saved a match point in the 10th game of the 2nd set to force a third set tie break where they needed another rally from 1-7 to secure the hard-earned victory.
This victory is among their memorable games, since their rivals have been taking part the Grand Slams.
And Bartone has already gained a reputation having been a US Open doubles champion and Wimbledon finalist.
Eala and Nugroho scored 14 points off 16 serves, and a total of four aces.