Alex Eala has once again made history.
On Friday (Saturday morning, Philippine time), the 17-year-old Filipina tennis prodigy defeated Victoria Mboko of Canada in straight sets, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) in the semifinals of the US Open girls singles held at the Court 12 of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York City.
Eala has already etched her name in the record books for a number of reasons.
She is one among just three Filipinos to have emerged champion in the doubles competition of a junior grand slam event. Eala won the girls’ doubles titles of the 2020 Australian Open and the 2021 French Open. The two other Filipinos who have won doubles titles in the junior grand slam are Eric Taino (1992 US Open) and Francis Casey Alcantara (2009 Australian Open).
In singles, only the legendary Felix Barrientos (1984 Wimbledon juniors) and Eala (2021 US Open juniors) have gone as far as the semifinals.
Now Eala has distinguished herself as the first player from the Philippines to make a junior grand slam finals.
In the semifinals, the 10th seeded Eala immediately steamrolled her way to a crushing first set win over Mboko who had no answers to the Filipina’s precise groundstrokes.
But Mboko, who just this year made the semifinals of the junior Wimbledon girls singles and the doubles finals of the Australian Open and Wimbledon, started to impose her power in the second set to keep in step with Eala. The Filipina, however, proved steadier in the second set tiebreak as she eked out her fifth straight-set victory in the tournament,
Mboko had more aces with five compared to Eala’s two. The Canadian of Congolese descent also scored more winners with 20 against Eala’s 14. But Eala had better ball control and court coverage and forced Mboko to commit 31 unforced errors, 10 more than Eala’s
Eala will have a chance to make even further history when she guns for the US Open girls singles title on Saturday (Sunday morning, Philippine time). She will be facing second seed and French Open girls singles and doubles champion Lucie Havlickova of the Czech Republic.
