By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Alex Eala brought down No. 4 seed Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine, 7-6 (5), 6-4, to book a semifinal berth in the W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament in Spain on Friday, July 19.
The fifth-seeded Eala bucked an erratic serves to outhustle Starodubtseva and inch closer to winning the $100,000 event.
In the semis, Eala battles a familiar face in Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez of Mexico, who recovered from an opening set loss to turn back Australia’s Melisa Ercan, 2-6, 6-5, 7-6 (5).
Eala is ahead of her 25-year-old rival in the rankings with the Filipino ace at No. 155 and Ramirez at No. 494.
Not only that, Eala, with French French partner Estelle Cascino, outclassed Ramirez and Noella Zeballos Melgas of Bolivia, 6-2, 6-3, to barge into the doubles finals.
That would certainly an extra boost for Eala when she meets Ramirez in the semis.
Meantime, Eala and Cascino battle Lia Karatancheva and Diana Marcinkevica for the crown after the Bulgarian-Latvian tandem stunned top seed Eden Silva of Great Britain and Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine, 3-6, 6-3, 12-10.
Ramirez is looking for her third ITF crown since last capturing the W15 Cancun in 2019.
Eala, for her part, is searching for her fifth ITF singles title and first this year.
Eala is looking at third ITF doubles crown and second with Cascino after they ruled the W75 Croissy-Beaubourg in France last March.
