Her feelings of intimidation gone, Alexandra Eala feels confident in her game, now that she has reached the next stage of the 2020 French Open’s Roland Garros Junior Tennis Championships girls’ singles.
After hurdling Spanish netter Leyre Romero-Gormaz, Eala has stopped worrying about how her opponents react to her aggressive moves on the clay courts of Stade Roland Garros in Paris.
“I am a lot less nervous now the match is over,” said Eala in an online statement after a 6-1,4-6, 6-1 triumph on Wednesday afternoon (Thursday in Manila).
The 15-year-old Eala, who is seeing action as a scholar of the Rafa Nadal Academy, emerged tougher after Gormaz took charge in the second set and forced a deciding third set.
The second seed Eala held her ground, and fought Gormaz to two closely-contested games.
“I am so excited. This is the best result I have had so far in terms of Junior Grand Slams and I am just going to try my best to go all the way,” said Eala, who reached her second Grand Slam quarterfinals since February.
The world no. 4 ranked took a 3-0 lead following two deuces in the third set.
Gormaz, who is at home on clay surfaces, made it even tougher in the fourth game, holding Eala to long exchanges, and yielding after four deuces, and handing the Filipina a 4-0 edge.
“I have tried to focus and work on certain areas of my game and I have seen improvements. But this is only my second tournament since March, so I am really proud of how things have turned out.”
With her milestone victory, Eala made it to the quarterfinals as the highest seeded player.
That’s because giant-killer Alina Charaeva pulled an upset over top seed Victoria Kasintseva of Andorra, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, in the second round.
“It was a tough match as the opponent’s favorite surface was naturally a clay court being a Spaniard,” said her dad Mike on Alex’s clash with Gormaz. Peter Atencio
Charaeva went on to advance to the quarterfinals with her 6-3, 6-1, triumph over Matilde Paoletti of Italy.
Czech netter Linda Nozkova, who eased out Flavie Brugnone of France, 6-1, 6-2, will battle Eala for a seat in the semifinals.
It took Eala around an hour and 48 minutes to get past Gormaz, who posted a 6-3, 7-5, win over Diana Schnalder of Russia in the second round.
Eala scored 55 points off her 85 first serves, and took 30 points on 55 second serves.
Eala made it to the third round after she dispatched German Mara Guth, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.
Other seeded players including France’s Elsa Jacquemot and Russia’s Polina Kudermetova, reached the quarterfinals with Eala.
Jacquemot advanced after she turned back British standout Matilda Mutavdzic, 6-3, 6-2., while Kudermetova did it after easing out Hungarian Amarissa Tot, 6-3, 6-1,
In other quarterfinal matches, Charaeva and Germany’s No. 9 seed Alexandra Vecic will go head-to-head.
Vecic made it to the round of eight after No. 8 seed Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.