In her first competitive doubles match since July, Alex Eala proved she hasn’t missed a beat.
The Filipina youngster teamed up with Ukrainian veteran Nadiia Kichenok to pull off a major upset, defeating fourth seeds Emily Appleton of Great Britain and Tang Qianhui of China, 6-4, 6-2, on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the WTA 250 Guangzhou Open, Thursday.
Eala and Kichenok were no strangers to Appleton, having faced her earlier this year.
In May, Eala paired with Renata Zarazua of Mexico to defeat Appleton and Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers of Spain in the opening round of the French Open.
Kichenok, meanwhile, partnered with Makoto Ninomiya of Japan to claim the WTA 250 Prague Open title last July, defeating Appleton and Isabelle Haverlag of the Netherlands in the semifinals.
At the Nansha International Tennis Center, the Filipina-Ukrainian duo repeated their success against Appleton.
The first set was tightly contested, with both pairs exchanging service breaks twice in the first six games and remaining deadlocked at 4-4.
The breakthrough came in the ninth game when Eala and Kichenok secured their third break to lead 5-4.
Appleton and Tang had opportunities to extend the set, holding two break points in the tenth game, but Eala and Kichenok held firm to close out the set after 40 minutes.
The second set stayed competitive through the fourth game, tied at 2-2, before Eala — ranked 207th in doubles — and Kichenok shifted into another gear.
They recorded two more service breaks to take the next four games and eliminate the fourth seeds.
This marks Eala’s first doubles appearance since July, when she and Germany’s Eva Lys exited in the first round of Wimbledon.
Kichenok, a 10-time WTA doubles champion — including four titles with her twin sister Lyudmyla — entered Guangzhou fresh off a semifinal finish at the WTA Japan Women’s Open with Ninomiya.
Eala will now look to make a deep doubles run to offset the disappointment of her singles campaign, where she fell in the first round to American qualifier Claire Liu.
On Friday, she and Kichenok will face the Russian pair of Polina Kudermetova and Kamilla Rakhimova, aiming for a spot in the semifinals.
