MANILA, Philippines, September 4 ------ For the third straight round, Alex Eala got dragged into a three-setter. And for the third straight time, she displayed composure and resilience and delivered when it mattered most. The 18-year-old Eala earned a semifinal berth for the first time in an ITF W100 event after fashioning out a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 triumph over local bet Lucia Cortez Llorca in the quarterfinal of the Peña Vitorian Tenis Club in Vitoria Gasteiz.
Eala made up for dropping her serve early in the opening set by breaking Llorca three times to take a one set advantage. Llorca, though, came out of the gates humming in the second set as the 23-year-old raced to 3-0 before Eala held serve in the fourth game. Eala had to play catch up the entire time but Llorca held on to her two-game lead to eventually close out the second set in the 10th game, 6-4. That proved to be Llorca’s last hurrah. The third set was all Eala, who regained control of the match and went up three games before closing the final eight encounter in the eighth game.
Eala’s cause was aided by Llorca’s 11 double faults. These helped Eala break Llorca eight times in the tightly contested match that lasted two hours and 12 minutes. This is the highest level International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament where Eala reached the last four. In her only other $100,000 ITF event, the Filipina bowed out it the second round of the W100 Grodzisk Mazowiecki in Poland last year. Eala will shoot for a finals spot when she faces third seed Jessika Ponchet of France in Saturday’s semifinal.
Ponchet downed in the quarterfinal Valeria Savinykh, the Russian who eliminated Eala in straight sets two weeks ago in the W40 Palma Del Rio. Eala and the 26-year-old Ponchet should be familiar with each other, having battled three previous times in the ITF pro circuit. Ponchet holds a 2-1 advantage in their head-to-head, although it was Eala who won their last matchup in three sets at the W80 Poities in France last October.
Source: rappler.com
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