No. 1 seed Alex Eala of the Philippines sustained her dominance in the JA Milan 61° Trofeo Bonfiglio tilt by clinching the singles championship Sunday in Italy, a day after she bagged the girls’ doubles crown with Madison Sieg of the United States. Juniors No. 3-ranked Eala subdued No. 16 seed Nikola Bartunkova of Czech Republic in the final, 6-3, 6-3, at Campo Tribuna in Tennis Club Milano Alberto Bonacossa.
On Saturday, Eala and Sieg outlasted Sofia Costoulas of Belgium and Lucija Ciric Bagaric of Croatia, 6-4, 4-6, 13-11, in the girls’ doubles final of the Grade A clay tournament.
A singles-doubles sweep in JA Milan last happened in 2016 courtesy of Olesya Pervushina of Russia. Since the prestigious Trofeo Bonfiglio was founded in 1959, the singles-doubles sweep has happened seven times, with Eala pulling off the latest feat.
This isn’t the first time the 16-year-old Filipina won the singles and doubles titles of a tournament. In 2018, she did the same at the I Trofeo David Ferrer, also a clay-court event.
With her win on Sunday, Eala joined a sparkling list of Trofeo Bonfiglio girls’ singles champions, which features Simona Halep, Sloane Stephens, Belinda Bencic, Dominika Cibulkova, Anna Kournikova, Gabriela Sabatini, and Virginia Wade.
Eala began her singles campaign in Milan by defeating Brenda Fruhvirtova of Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-2, then dismissed Kayla Cross of Canada in the second round, 6-1, 6-1.
She scored difficult wins over No. 13 seed Ksenia Zaytseva of Russia in the third round, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-5, and No. 6 seed Costoulas in the quarterfinals, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4.
The top seed then trumped 14-year-old Mirra Andreeva of Russia, 7-5, 6-2, in the semifinal before edging out Bartunkova in the final in straight sets.
Eala and Bartunkova are now 1-1 in the head-to-head as the Czech beat the Filipino in the quarterfinals of the 2019 ITF World Junior Tennis Finals. (See full story online at manilastandard.net)
The JA Milan is Eala’s fourth junior singles crown, following the titles she won at the 2019 JA Cape Town, 2018 Phinma-PSC International Juniors 1, and 2018 I Trofeo David Ferrer.
In the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour, the WTA World No. 630 has one professional title, which she won in January at the W15 Manacor tournament in Spain.
Following their hard-fought doubles title win on Saturday, Eala and Sieg joined the list of Trofeo Bonfiglio girls’ doubles champions, which includes Victoria Azarenka and Olga Govortsova, Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci, and Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Barbora Strycova.
The JA Milan doubles crown is the fifth girls’ doubles title for Eala.
She won at the 2021 Roland Garros Junior Championships with Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia, 2020 Australian Open Junior Championships with Priska Madelyn Nugroho of Indonesia, 2019 JA Plantation with Evialina Laskevich of Belarus, and 2018 I Trofeo David Ferrer with Joelle Lilly Sophie Steur of Germany. With Peter Atencio