RECOVERING from a shaky start, Filipina teen tennis ace Alex Eala rallied to clobber 30-year-old Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers, 0-6, 6-2, 7-5, to punch a ticket in the quarterfinals of the W60 Madrid Singles at the Club Deportivo Brezo Osuna on Thursday night.
This is Eala's second win against the older Spanish player, whom she already defeated in 2021 on her final match in the first leg of W15 Manacor, her maiden pro title.
In this $60,000 tourney, this was Eala's second upset, following a 6-1, 6-2 sweep over Daniela Seguel, 11th seed, in the second round last Wednesday.
Alex Eala standoff holds her own Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers
The Spanish pro started strong with a 2-0 advantage over the teenager, who struggled to pick up her pace. Eala eventually managed to force a deuce in the fourth game before Cavelle-Reimers regained control to take the first set.
In the following set, though, the Filipina turned the tides around after a few minutes to take control at 3-1, before a double fault, 3-2. But she powered through the next games to end at 6-2 and force a decider.
The third set saw a seesaw of scores with Cavalle-Reimers starting at 2-0 before Eala tied it up. The home bet inched up to 5-3 that Eala equalized, then finally regained control to pull away at 7-5 in a match that lasted two hours and 15 minutes.
Bound for the quarterfinals, she will next face third-seed Jamie Fourlis from Australia on Friday.
Eala is looking to bag her third pro title, to add to her trophies from the W15 Manacor in 2021, and the W25 Chiang Rai last April.
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