MANILA, Philippines — With a fiery all-around game, Alex Eala stamped her class against her Japanese opponent Saturday to march to the girls singles finals of the Phinma-PSC International Junior Tennis Championships at Manila Polo Club.
The 13-year-old Eala was untouchable as she handily disposed of Mei Hasegawa, 6-1, 6-3, and lined herself up for a back-to-back title Sunday against Indonesian top seed Janice Tjen.
Tjen, the 16-year-old World No. 221 who got derailed in Week 1 after losing in the semifinals, barged into the championship match after an equally impressive 6-1, 6-0 victory over fourth seed Li XuanJun of China.
Eala, the country’s budding tennis star who is a scholar at the school of superstar Rafael Nadal in Mallorca, Spain, is hoping to become the first FIlipina to sweep the two-week ITF tournament sponsored by Philippine Tennis Association, Philippine Sports Commission, Phinma Properties and Tecnifibre.
But she’s got a lot on her plate as Tjen just won the ITF Grade 3 tourney in Sarawak, Indonesia, and her experience is expected to come into play.
Fortunately, the Filipina can’t be easily intimidated as shown by her recent victories in Spain, and in Week 1 of this Grade 4 meet.
Tjen and Chinese Taipei’s Wang Chao-yi captured the girls doubles title after trouncing Japanese Kokomi Koyama and Erika Matsuda, 6-4, 6-3.
In boys action, third seed Zsombor Velcz of Hungary and fourth-ranked Kokoro Isomura arranged a final duel after beating their respective semis foes.
Velcz upset second seed Tom Evans of Australia, 6-3, 6-2, while Isomura, who ended the campaign of top Filipino bet Nio Tria in the quarterfinals, clobbered Lo Yi-jui of Chinese Taipei, 6-3, 6-3.