ALEXANDRA “ALEX” EALA lived up to her No. 2 seeding by bundling out homegrown Charlotte Owensby, 6-3, 6-3, in the US Open junior girls competition at Flushing Meadows, New York, on Tuesday night (Manila time).
Eala, 16, was the steadier player in the second-round match, watching the 18-year-old Owensby melt mostly at the baseline and forcing her to yield 25 unforced errors while committing only five of her own.
Those errors doomed the American—who had a career-high junior ranking of No. 78 in January last year but dropped to No. 315 this month—in the one-hour and six-minute match. Owensby reached the second round after defeating Thailand’s Pimrada Jattavapornvanit, 6-1, 7-6 (3).
The 5-foot-9 Eala, ranked No. 2 in world juniors and No. 513 in the Women’s Tennis Association—advanced to the third round where she will face Greece’s Michaela Laki, 6-0, 6-4 winner over Elizabeth Coleman also of the US.
Girls’ topseed Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, also 16, also advanced to the third round following her 6-1, 6-0 rout of American Theadora Rabman.
Eala is eyeing her third Grand Slam title after the French Open juniors doubles victory with Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva earlier this year and the 2020 Australian Open doubles with Indonesian Priska Nugroho. She is also entered in the US Open doubles competition where she drew a first-round bye with Belgian partner Hanne Vandewinkel. The sixth-seeded pair will play either the unseeded duo of Laki and Radka Zelnickova of Slovakia or Tatum Evans and Amelia Honer in a second-round duel.
Image courtesy of troi santos