Eala, Venus Williams advance in Bad Homburg Open doubles

MANILA, Philippines -- The dream pairing of Alex Eala and Venus Williams is heading to the second round of the Bad Homburg Open doubles’ action after blasting Alexandra Osborne and Catherine Harrison, 6-3, 6-4, late Wednesday evening (Manila time). 

The rising Filipina star and the American icon needed just an hour and 10 minutes to grab the victory over the American-Australian duo. 

Eala and Williams jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first set as the two showed chemistry almost immediately. 

But Osborne and Harrison closed the gap with back-to-back games to make it a 2-4 deficit. 

The Filipino-American pair, though, pushed themselves to the brink of the first set, before their opponents kept themselves alive, 3-5. 

But a dominant ninth game placed Eala and Williams in the driver’s seat, 6-3. 

It was a lot closer in the second set, with the pairs tied up at 4-all after Osborne and Harrison broke their opponent’s serve. 

But Eala and Williams dug deep to win the next two games and grab the victory. 

The winning pair won 35 service points to their opponent’s 31, while both had 19 return points won. 

The two tennisters both suffered early exits in the singles' play of the tournament. 

Eala and Williams will now face Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls in the next round. The second-seeded pair earlier defeated Chinese tennisters Jiang Xinyu and Xu Yifan, 6-2, 6-3.