Red-hot Eala nears major crown

MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala shored up her drive for a breakthrough singles grand slam title, marching on to the semifinals of the US Open junior championships with a masterful 6-4, 6-0 win over her good friend Mirra Andreeva of Russia yesterday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City.

The Filipina wunderkind hacked out a comeback win in the first set before blanking Andreeva, her partner in doubles play, in the clincher to progress to the Final Four.

Eala, 17, thus surpassed her quarterfinal finish last year in the US Open and boosted her goal of capturing her maiden singles grand slam in a young career highlighted by two doubles slams already – 2020 Australian Open and 2021 French Open.

Seeded 10th in the tough 64-strong draw, Eala will try to move closer to that mission against No. 9 seed Victoria Mboko of Canada.

The other semis pairing features No. 7 Diana Shnaider of Russia versus second seed Lucie Havlickova of Czech Republic.

Eala trailed early at 2-4 in the opening frame but found her bearing and took the next four games for the win.

She was not to be stopped from there on as she did not yield a single game to the 14th-seeded Andreeva on her way to the Last 4.

Eala, the world junior No. 167 and WTA No. 297, is still perfect through four rounds so far without a single set allowed against Australia’s Taylah Preston, Canada’s Annabelle Xu and Slovakia’s Nina Vargova.

Following their singles match, Eala with her injury-hit partner Andreeva, however, could not continue in their doubles campaign and thus gifted a second-round walkover to the German duo of Carolina Kuhl and Ella Seidel.

The Filipina-Russian tandem ran away with an easy 6-2, 6-2 win over the American pair of Iva Jovic and Shannon Lam in the first round.