ON TRACK. Alexandra Eala has eyes on the ball at the US Open in New York, where she qualified for the finals slated for Sunday (Sept. 11, 2022), Philippine time. She will take on Czech Lucie Havlickova. (Courtesy of Troi Santos Facebook)
MANILA – Alexandra Eala of the Philippines pulled off a 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Canadian Victoria Mboko on Saturday to reach the girls' singles finals of the US Open Juniors Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
The No. 10 seed needed one hour and 21 minutes to prevail over Mboko, the No. 9 seed who ousted fourth pick Swiss Celine Naef, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5, in the quarterfinal round.
Eala, the world junior No. 167, will meet second seed and French Open girls' singles champion Lucie Havlickova of the Czech Republic in the finals on Sunday.
“Isa pa (One more),” she posted on her Facebook page.
Havlickova, world No. 3 in both singles and doubles, defeated seventh-seeded Diana Shnaider, 6-4, 6-4, in the other semifinal match.
Havlickova also reached the doubles finals with Shnaider.
They scored a 6-1, 7-6 (7-1) win over American Liv Hovde and Australian Taylah Preston to advance against Germans Carolina Kuhl and Ella Seidel, who advanced past American Alexis Blokhina and Canadian Annabelle Xu, 7-5, 6-4.
If the 17-year-old Havlickova wins her two finals matches, she will become the second junior to win both titles in the tournament after American Robin Montgomery, who achieved the feat last year.
Eala won in the 2020 Australian Open and 2021 French Open juniors doubles and will try to add a first singles major title in her maiden finals appearance.
The 17-year-old saw action in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games held in the Philippines, snagging the bronze medals in women's singles, women's team, and mixed doubles with Filipino-American Treat Conrad Huey.
She has been training at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca, Spain for the past four years. (PNA)
