Eala-Sieg moves a win away from JA Milan finals; advances to singles QF

July 16 ------ Alex Eala completed her assignments of the day with flying colors. This as the Filipina ace and her partner American Madison Sieg took care of Russians Ksenia Saytseva and Yaroslava Bartashevich, 6-4, 6-3, to move into the semifinals of the girls’ doubles event of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors’ JA tournament, Thursday at the Tennis Club Milano Alberto Bonacossai in Milan, Italy.

After taking a scare in the first set, Eala and Sieg wasted no time in the second set, taking advantage of an early break to wrap up the match with another service break to end the match in an hour and 18 minutes. The Russians had one break point opportunity in the second set, but could not capitalize as instead the Filipino-American duo eventually held serve and seized control of the match.

Saytseva and Bartashevich threatened to bag the opening set to lead at 4-1, Nonetheless, Eala and Sieg used their experience advantage to pile up the point and turned them into games won to instead snag the set from behind. Eala-Sieg will face a pair of Russians once more in Kira Pavlova and Diana Shnaider for a place in the finals.

Earlier in the day, Eala needed three match points to punctuate a marathon match against Russia’s Ksenia Zaytseva, 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-5 to move into the quarterfinals. The match lasted for two hours and 45 minutes. The number 1 seed had to complete a comeback after going down 3-5 to the Russian in the deciding set. This, despite an early break of serve to lead at 2-0. Nonetheless, with both players struggling to hold serves, Eala took advantage of that final break of serve to pocket the win.

The pair of 16-year-olds traded service breaks on the opening set up to the ninth game, as Eala led 5-4. The Filipino had chances to get the set in her next two service games. Zaytseva, though, eventually forced a tiebreak. Eala, nonetheless, dominated the tiebreak after going ahead at 6-1. She never looked back for the set advantage. The Russian cleaned up her service game in the following set. She then used a double break advantage to extend the match to a decider. Eala will take on Belgian Sofia Costoulas for a place in the semifinal.

Source: tiebreakertimes.com.ph