By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Alex Eala continued her Wimbledon Girls Championship preparations after her impressive second round win in the J1 Roehampton tournament in London Thursday (Friday in Manila).
Adjusting well to the grass courts, the second-seeded Eala hardly encountered problem in dispatching Italy’s Matilde Paoletti, 6-2, 6-0.
In the first round, Eala had hard time before pulling off a 6-4, 6-4 win over Czech Republic’s Darja Vidmanova.
The win arranged Eala a Round of 16 meeting with 14th seed Mara Guth of Germany, who survived the pesky plays of Great Britain’s kylie Blichev, 6-4, 7-6 (6).
This marks the third time that Eala and Guth will be meeting with Eala winning their two encounters – the first time during the semifinal of 2019 JA Osaka event, 6-3, 6-4, then in the second round of the 2020 Roland Garros Championships, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.
Eala, however, was not so fortunate in the doubles after she and Indonesian parner Priska Madelyn Nugroho bowed to Czech Republic’s Barbora Palicova and Slovakia’s Radka Zelnickova, 6-4, 6-4, in the second round.
Eala and Nugroho, who won the 2020 Australian Open Juniors Doubles title, were seeded second in the tournament and were coming off a 7-6 (1), 7-5 first-round win over German Nicole Rivkin and Belgian Hanne Vandewinkel.
