Filipino sixth seed Alex Eala eliminated Spanish wildcard Lorena Solar Donoso, 6-3, 6-2, in the first round of the W40 Palma del Rio in Spain on Monday, June 26.
Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) World No. 261 Eala took one hour and 21 minutes to defeat her fellow teenager on the outdoor hard court of Asociación de Tenistas Palmeños-Polideportivo.
Eala, 18 years old, overcame deuce to advance to 2-1, then held serve at 40-30 to be at 3-2.
The reigning US Open Juniors singles winner broke serve for the first time to extend her lead to 4-2, and her 16-year-old Spanish opponent broke back immediately to trail at 3-4.
Eala broke serve to love courtesy of a double fault by Solar Donoso, and served out the first set, 6-3, on her maiden set point at 40-15.
In the second set, Eala zoomed to 3-0 after forcing the opening game to deuce and winning it on her first advantage point, securing a love service hold, and breaking serve at 40-30 in the third game.
International Tennis Federation (ITF) No. 1837 Donoso responded by notching a service break, which Eala matched with another break of serve to be at 4-1.
The Spaniard broke serve once more after Eala committed three double faults in the sixth game, and the Filipino recovered by converting her second of three break points in the following game.
It was Eala’s sixth break point conversion out of 11 chances, while Donoso managed to win three out of five break points.
As Eala was serving for the match at 5-2, she fought off Donoso’s resistance at deuce to seal the victory, 6-2.
The Filipino netter will next face fellow three-time ITF women’s singles champion Talia Gibson of Australia in the second round.
Gibson, the WTA No. 377, overcame 21-year-old Adithya Karunaratne of Hong Kong in the first round, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5).
Former World No. 90 Harmony Tan of France also succeeded in the opening round as the eighth seed with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over home bet and wild card recipient Raquel Gonzalez Vilar.
Other top players who are slated to see action include former WTA No. 29 Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Australian No. 5 seed Lizette Cabrera, who is of Filipino descent.
The W40 Palma del Rio, which is a $40,000 tournament on the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour, runs until July 2.
Last week, Eala participated in another Spanish tournament at the W25+H Tauste-Zaragoza, where she suffered an upset in the first round.
The Rafa Nadal Academy graduate bounced back in the doubles draw with a quarterfinal finish alongside Indonesian veteran Beatrice Gumulya. (ABS-CBN News)