Alex Eala makes light work of Spanish foe in W60 Vitoria-Gasteiz opener

MANILA, Philippines, July 21 ------ Filipina tennis sensation Alex Eala is back in the fold of ITF tiffs as she's currently competing in the W60 Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain. She dominated home bet and wild card entry Berta Gutierrez Saiz, 6-1, 6-2, to cruise to the next round.

In just an hour, Eala disposed of Gutierrez Saiz in a game where the 17-year-old won all but one of her service games. Set 1 saw Eala jump to a 5-0 lead over the 18-year-old but two double faults in Game 6 enabled the Spanish hitter to draw one back. Eala, though, bounced back easily as she broke Gutierrez Saiz's serve right back to take the opener.

In Set 2, it looked a little more like a contest as Gutierrez Saiz scored on an ace to get within two games of Eala, 2-4. But the Rafa Nadal scholar strung together back-to-back game wins to end the second set after 32 minutes.

Eala thus forged a duel with Taiwan's Ya-Hsuan Lee in the Round of 16. Lee comes off a stunner against 8-seed Lulu Sun of Switzerland, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round.

In her last 60,000 tournament in Madrid, Eala reached the final but fell to Marina Bassols Ribera in two sets to settle for runner-up.

Source: philstar.com