ALEX Eala has done it again.
Tournament top seeds Eala and Madison Sieg of USA proved to be the toughest pair in Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan, Italy, an International Tennis Federation JA tournament.
Eala, 16, and Sieg, 18 toppled Croatia's Lucija Ciric Bagaric and Sofia Costoulas of Belgium, 6-4, 4-6, 13-11, to clinch the girls' doubles title on Saturday night, Philippine time.
This is Eala's third JA title, her fifth counting the two Grand Slams.
Although the Filipina and American led the first set at 3-0, their opponents fought back to tie the set at 4-4, before they eventually broke away with two consecutive games won.
The Croatian and Belgian, however, picked up their pace in the middle of the second set, tying it at 4-4, before taking the next games to force a tiebreaker.
Alex Eala, Madison Sieg survive tense third set
At the decider, their foes took the first game, leaving the top-seeded duo scrambling for momentum. Eala and Sieg successfully turned the match around, tying at 5-5, then 6-6, and then pulling away at 7-6, to steal the lead for the first time in the final set.
The back-and-forth thriller continued as the duos tied it up at 11-11, before the Juniors World Nos. 3 and 16 first reached 12-11, and then capped it off at 13-11.
The match lasted for one hour and 35 minutes.
Eala is still has unfinished business in Milan. She'll be playing the singles title match on Sunday, Manila time, against 19th-seeded Nikola Bartunkova of the Czech Republic.
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