THE TOP-SEEDED pair of Alex Eala and Russia's Oksana Selekhmeteva pulled off a back-to-back win on Tuesday (Philippine time) to proceed to the quarterfinals of the Roland Garros French Open Girls’ Doubles tournament.
They beat Evialina Laskevich of Belarus and Alina Shcherbinina of Russia earlier this morning (in Manila time). And then, in the second round at the French Open this evening, they did the same to Sofia Costoulas of Belarus and Laura Hietaranta of Finland.
Eala, 16, and Selekhmeteva, 18, briskly swept the duo, 6-3, 6-1, to make it past the round of 16 to move onto the round of 8.
Although their opponents got the first game of the match, the Filipina and Russian pair won the first set, breaking Costoulas and Hietaranta in the 5th, 7th, and 9th game.
Coming into the following set, they were able to maintain their pace, quickly leading at 4-0 before their foes scored their first point.
The W25 Platja D’Aro finalists held off their foes to just a single point the entire second set, capping off the match that only lasted just under an hour.
Both Eala, juniors world no. 3, and Selekhmeteva, juniors world no. 10, have already won a Girls’ Doubles Grand Slam in their young careers.
They will next face either Czech Barbara Palicova and Canadian Annabelle Xu, or Croatia's Petra Marcinko and Hungary's Natalia Szabanin in the quarterfinals.
Despite being the tournament's second seed, Eala bowed out early from the tournament's singles division.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
