Alex Eala and Janice Tjen reached a career milestone together, advancing to the doubles semifinals of a WTA 500 event for the first time.
The Southeast Asian duo were in full control as they cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over second seeds Zhang Shuai of China and Cristina Bucsa of Spain in the doubles quarterfinals of the WTA Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open on Thursday (Friday morning, Philippine time) at the Zayed Sports City International Tennis Centre.
Their win in just one hour and seven minutes was all the more impressive considering they were up against Zhang, a recent Australian Open champion, and Bucsa, the world No. 22 who reached the finals of the WTA 500 Brisbane International earlier this January.
Eala and Tjen set the tone early, racing to 3-0 leads in both sets and dictating play from start to finish.
They broke their opponents five times and never allowed Zhang and Bucsa to even level the score at any point in the match.
The victory also marked a strong bounce-back performance for Eala, who was playing her third match in less than 24 hours.
Just over an hour before their doubles quarterfinal, she bowed to Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova in the singles quarterfinals.
Eala and Tjen will shoot for a spot in the finals on Friday when they take on world No. 26 Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain and Tereza Mihalikova of the Slovak Republic.
