Alex Eala and her partner, Beatrice Gumulya of Indonesia, kicked off their campaign on a high note as they dominated in the first round of the women’s doubles event of the W25+H Tauste-Zaragoza tournament at the Club Tenis Tauste in Tauste Spain.
The 18-year-old Filipina and her Indonesian partner booked a 2-6, 1-6 win over Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers of Spain and Elena Milovanovic of Serbia to pick up their first victory in this professional tournament.
It was Eala’s first win since graduating as an athletic scholar at the world-famous Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy last week.
The farthest that Eala, a three-time junior Grand Slam champion, ever reached in her professional doubles career was she and her partner, Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia, made it to the final of the Platja d’Aro tourney in Spain in 2021.
Eala and Selekhmeteva suffered a crushing 3-6, 5-7 loss to Oana Georgeta Simion of Romania and Justina Mikulsyte of Lithuania.
With their victory in the first round, Eala and Gumulya, a gold medalist in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games, will face Alana Parnaby of Australia and Victoria Rodriguez of Mexico in the Round of 16.
But it wouldn’t be easy as Parnaby and Rodriguez will be entering the match oozing with confidence after upsetting the second-seeded pair of Australians Talia Gibson and Petra Hule, 7-5, 6-7, 10-4, in their first-round meeting.
Meanwhile, Eala wasn’t as fortunate in the singles event as she lost to Destanee Alava of Australia, 1-6, 2-6, in the Round of 32.
The 23-year-old Alava, who has a career-high world ranking of 147 and had played in the main draw of the Australian Open four times, pulled off an upset on the third-seed Eala in just one hour and 24 minutes.
After this tournament, Eala, who is at No. 261 in the latest Women’s Tennis Association ranking, is set to compete in the W40 Palma Del Rio also in Spain from 26 June to 2 July.
