Eala, Ukrainian partner dominate rivals to book quarters ticket in Guangzhou

October 24 ------ Alex Eala finally ended her string of early exits as she and Ukrainian Nadiia Kichenok dominated Tang Qianhui and Emily Appleton, 6-4, 6-2, to book their quarterfinal ticket in the Guangzhou Open in China.

Vying in the 16-pair field of the WTA 250 doubles event on Chinese soil, the 20-year-old Eala and her partner came out firing, especially in the second set to outgun the Chinese-British duo in their Round-of-16 clash. Though the first frame went back-and-forth, Eala and Kichenok made sure it wouldn’t happen in the following set where they crawled back from a 1-2 deficit by taking the next six games to leave Qianhui and Appleton behind.

Next for them are Russians Polina Kudermetova and Kamilla Rakhimova. Kudermetova and Rakhimova secured their spot in the quarters with a 2-6, 6-2, 10-3 escape over Thai Peangtarn Plipuech and Wushuang Zheng. For the Filipina lefty, the victory broke her disappointing run, including her recent setback in Guangzhou’s singles where she absorbed a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 loss to American Claire Liu. Eala, the current world No. 53, also sustained the similar fate in Kinoshita Group Japan Open and Wuhan Open in the past weeks.

Source: mb.com.ph