Eala wins rare twin titles in Spain tilt

MANILA, Philippines -- Alex Eala snared a rare double crown in Spain, reigning supreme in both the singles and doubles tournaments of the elite W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain Sunday (Manila time).

Up against a former junior adversary, the fifth-seeded Eala stood her ground and delivered on a methodical 6-4, 6-4 finale win to beat No. 7 seed Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra in the singles play.

The win of Eala, former World Junior No. 2, against the ex-World Junior No. 1 Kasintseva came just hours after a remarkable championship run in the doubles category.

It’s the fifth professional singles title of Eala and third in the doubles – which she all won this year – in a budding women’s circuit career since her reign in the girls’ arena.

Eala did not yield a single set in the singles play highlighted by a clinic of Kasintseva in only one hour and 34 minutes.

She previously swept Lian Tran of the Netherlands, 6-4, 6-2, home bet Lucia Cortez Llorca, 7-5, 7-5, No. 4 seed Yuliia Starodubtseva from Ukraine, 7-6 (5), 6-4, and Mexico’s Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez, 6-2, 6-1.

In the doubles, the 19-year-old sensation with long-time partner Estelle Cascino of France did not drop a single set until the finale, where they fended off Bulgaria’s Lia Karatancheva and Latvia’s Diana Marcinkevica, 6-3, 2-6, 10-4, for the diadem of the $100,000 tourney.

It’s the first marathon duel for the third-seeded tandem after wins against home bets Carolina Gomez and Jimena Gomez, 6-3, 6-2, as well as the pair of Czechia’s Victoria Bervid and Italy’s Laura Mair, 6-4, 6-1, in the first two rounds.

They then drubbed Mexico’s Ramirez and Bolivia’s Noelia Zeballos Melgar, 6-2, 6-3, in the semifinals.

Eala and Cascino were also partners in ruling the W75 Croissy-Beaubourg championship in France last March after the Filipina’s breakthrough doubles title in the W50 Pune in India with Latvian teammate Darja Semenistaja.

Eala, ranked No. 155 in the WTA singles and No. 245 in the doubles, found a doubles expert in Cascino (WTA No. 120 in doubles but No. 1112 in the singles) and it showed in their second championship together.

That’s despite going up against the proven duo of Karatancheva and Marcinkevica, who slayed the top-seeded tandem of Eden Silva from Great Britain and Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine, 3-6, 6-3, 12-10, in the semis.