By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Alex Eala and Zeynep Sonmez stunned their seeded rivals and advanced to the semifinals of the Kyotec Open in Petange, Luxembourg on Thursday, Nov. 16.
Complementing each other well despite playing together for the first time, Eala and Sonmez dictated the pace throughout with their booming shots and daring net attacks on the way to a 6-2, 6-1 win over fourth pick Katarina Kozarov of Serbia and Anita Wagner of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the $40,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) event.
Eala and Sonmez will next face the winner between the top-seeded pair of Ali Collins of Great Britain and Isabelle Haverlag of the Netherlands, and hometown bet Marie Weckerie and Dutch Indy De Vroome.
The 18-year-old Eala is also still in contention in the singles where she is seeded ninth and playing against Danish qualifier Johanne Christine Svendsen at press time.
The tournament is Eala’s last of the season.
Meanwhile, top seed Francis Casey Alcantara and Indonesian partner Christopher Rungkat fell short on their bid at the M25 Hua Hin tournament in Thailand on Wednesday, Nov. 15.
Alcantara and Rungkat failed to sustain their hot start and yielded to unseeded Japanese tandem Koki Matsuda and Ryota Tanuma, 1-6, 6-3, 10-8, in the opening round of the $25,000 ITF event.
In Kobe, Japan, fellow Davis Cupper Ruben Gonzales and Korean partner Yun Seong Chung are competing against Indian duo Pura Raja and Ramkumar Ramanathan at presstime for a spot in the semifinals of the Hyogo Noah Challenger.
Gonzales and Chung are coming off a morale-boosting 6-4, 6-4 win over third seed Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli and Arjun Kadhe in the first round of the $80,000 Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournament.
