By REYNALD MAGALLON
Alex Eala and French partner Estelle Cascino capped a dominant run all throughout the W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain, winning the doubles crown after a pulsating 6-3, 2-6, 10-4 victory over Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria and Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia in the final on Saturday, July 20.
The third-seeded Eala and Cascino shrugged off a tough stand from their upset-minded rivals, pulling away in the deciding third set to claim their second doubles crown after also winning it together in the ITF W75 Croissy-Beaubourg last March.
For Eala, it is now her third ITF doubles title.
Reminiscent of their spotless run that saw Eala and Cascino score straight set victories one after another en route to the finale, the Filipina-French duo looked poised for another easy win after taking the opening set.
Karantancheva and Marcinkevica, however, refused to go down without a fight, breaking Eala and Cascino’s serve three times to power a second-set win and force the decider.
Not to be denied though were the dynamic duo as after a 1-all start, Eala and Cascino scored the next seven points to take a commanding 8-1 lead before finally cruising to the victory.
The Filipina tennis ace’s celebration, however, will have to wait as she tries to go for a double victory in the Spain tournament after moving one win away from the singles crown.
The tireless Eala took down Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez of Mexico via another straight set triumph, 6-2, 6-1, in the semifinals.
In search for her fifth singles title, Eala has been spotless throughout his run in the singles, not even dropping a set throughout the week including the semis match against Ramirez.
Ranked No. 155 in the world, the Filipina faces an equally promising teen against No. 231 and 18-year-old Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva of Andorra.
The singles final appeared to be a promising one though the two were former juniors champions with Eala winning the US Open girls singles crown while Jiménez Kasintseva bagging the Australian Open girls singles title.
