Alex Eala swept hometown bet Zeel Desai, 6-1, 6-2, to advance to the quarterfinals of the W50 Pune tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana in India last Thursday.
Displaying grace under pressure, the 18-year-old Eala wrapped up the match in just one hour and two minutes to make it to the Last Eight in the women’s singles event of this tourney that offers $40,000 pot money.
Prior to beating the Indian hotshot, Eala defeated Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-2. 6-2, in the Round of 32. Now, she will be up against her doubles partner in No. 1 seed Darja Semenistaja of Latvia for a spot in the semifinals.
The 21-year-old Latvian, No. 142 in the Women’s Tennis Association pulled off a 6-1, 6-7, 6-2 win over Naho Sato of Japan in a separate Round of 16 match to arrange a quarterfinal duel with Eala.
But for now, Eala and Semenistaja are teaming up in the women’s doubles event as they are competing against Jessie Aney of the United States and Lena Papadakis of Germany in the quarterfinals at press time.
Meanwhile, the Filipino tennis sensation will enter the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open set from 3 to 11 February at the International Tennis Centre in Zayed Sports City in the United Arab Emirates.
Eala earned a spot in the main draw as a wild card as she goes toe-to-toe with the likes of former Grand Slam winners Naomi Osaka of Japan and Emma Raducanu of the United Kingdom.
Also joining the tournament are world No.5 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, No. 6 Ons Jabeaur of Tunisia, No. 8 Maria Sakkari of Greece, No. 11 Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, No. 12 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, No. 13 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil and No. 14 Daria Kasatkina of Russia.
