Alex Eala and Oksana Selekhmeteva have been to all of the Grand Slam finals combined – save for the French Open.
That ended Friday as the top-seeds marched into their first-ever Grand Slam final as a tandem with a rousing 6-2, 6-1 over Italians Eleanora Alvisi and Lisa Pigato in the semifinal at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, Saturday (Manila time).
Selekhmeteva has been to two of the Slams’ last dances, taking Wimbledon in 2019 before winning it all in the US Open months later. Both tournaments have been with Latvian Kamilla Bartone.
On the other hand, Eala won the Australian Open title at the start of the very same year, but with Indonesian Priska Madelyn Nugroho.
This time with such Grand Slam experience, the newly formed pair was built to dominate. And finally, after struggling to do just that, they did it in the semis.
Selekhmeteva saw a meek return of the Eala shot coming from the Italian and fired a powerful forehand that would not get a response to end the 53-minute match.
The Filipino-Russian duo led up only allowed a solitary break of serve at 2-1 point, before a huge service break to love pushed the advantage to 4-1.
It was a tight opening set to begin the contest on serve before Eala managed to hold serve and consolidate an earlier service break for a 4-2 lead. Eventually, they turned it into the set advantage.
Selekhmeteva had to overcome fatigue in the match as earlier in the day, she lost a tough two-hour and 35 minute game against Erika Andreeva, 6-2, 5-7, 6-7.
The top-seeds will face Russian Maria Bondarenko and Hungarian Amarissa Kiara Tóth in the final for all the marbles
