Eala reaches 3rd round at Roland Garros

MANILA, Philippines — Second seed Alex Eala bucked a big scare from German Mara Guth, battling back from a tough second-set defeat and overcoming a 3-4 deficit in the decider to pound out a 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 victory and barge into the third round of the French Open juniors tournament at Roland Garros yesterday.

Facing elimination, the 15-year-old Pinay wonder leaned on her big fighting heart to break her rival in the eighth game of the third frame. She held serve in the next before sustaining her momentum and breaking Guth again to complete the come-from-behind victory in two hours and 12 minutes.

The victory in the rain-delayed match lined up the world No. 4 against Leyre Romero of Spain, who dispatched Russian D. Shnaider, 6-3, 7-5, in their side of the duel in the lower half of the 64-player draw.

Eala, who trains at the Rafa Nadal5 Academy and winner of the Australian Open girls doubles early this year with Indonesian partner Priska Nugroho, kicked off her campaign with a 6-4, 6-1 triumph over Hungarian Natalia Szabanin.

Reversals actually marred the upper bracket as local bet Oceane Babel bundled out No. 6 Kamilla Bartone of Latvia, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, and Russian Julia Avdeeva upended No. 11 Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, to advance to the third round.

For a while, Eala looked headed to joining the seeded bets into the sidelines as she struggled with her shots in the face of Guth’s big fightback in the second frame following a dominant run in the opening set.

The duo traded breaks in the first five games of the tense-filled second frame until the German held serve in the sixth game to go 4-2. Eala struck back after holding serve and breaking her rival in the eighth but Guth took the hotly-disputed set with two breaks and a held serve against the Pinay’s lone service break.

Guth went 4-3 in the decider on a hold-break game in the sixth and seventh games but Eala proved far from being finish, putting up a stronger windup and a sweep of the next three games to pull off the big escape.

Eala is also slated to vie in the doubles tournament with American partner Elvina Kalieva with the third-ranked pair going up against Italians E. Alvisi and L. Pigato in the first round.