Alex Eala has reached another milestone.
The 10th-seeded Filipina netter did it after fashioning out a 6-4 6-0 beating of her doubles’ partner, 14th seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia in their quarterfinal clash Thursday morning (Friday in Manila) at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York City.
For the 17-year-old Eala, the second set was not that hard after she took a 3-0 lead. And it was quickly over after Eala went on to cruise to a 4-0 edge, breaking serve for the third time in the set.
With Filipino fans and her parents cheering her on, Eala booked a first-ever semifinal seat in the US Open girls’ singles.
She will have a tougher challenge in the semis, though, with 16-year-old Victoria Mboko of Canada as her next rival.
Mboko is playing with confidence after making it to the semifinals of the Wimbledon juniors this year. Her hard-fought, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 upset win over 4th seed Celine Naef of Switzerland in the quarterfinals put her up against Eala.
In other semis matches, no.2 seed Czech netter Lucie Havlickova scored an impressive straight-sets win over American Clervie Ngounoue, 6-4 6-2, while No. 7 seed Diana Shnaider advanced with a victory over Great Britain’s Ranah Stoiber, 6-4, 6-3.
It was a big loss for Andreeva, who knocked out girls’ No. 1 seed Sofia Costoulas, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, in the third round, leading to her quarterfinal showdown with Eala.
Eala and Andreeva later defaulted their doubles’ clash with Germans Ella Seidel and Carolina Kuhl in the second round.
