The Philippines’ Alex Eala became the first Filipina to win a Grand Slam title at the Australian Open after she and Indonesian tennis partner Priska Madelyn Nugroho beat their opponents to claim the 2020 Australian Open Junior Girls’ Doubles Title on Friday.
The fourth-seeded pair of Eala and Nugroho silenced Slovenia’s Ziva Falkner and Great Britain’s Matilda Mutavdzic in the Australian Open Finals, 6-1, 6-2, in the competition held at the Melbourne Park.
Even before her Grand Slam title, Alex Eala already held the distinction of being the first Filipina tennis player to make a finals appearance at the Australian Open after she and her partner defeated top-seeded Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic and Kamilla Bartone of Latvia in the semifinal round on January 30.
In the quarterfinals, the Filipino and Indonesian pair trounced French pair Aubane Droguet and Selena Janicijevic with a score of 7-6 , 6-2. In the first round, the pair bested Russia’s Elina Avanesyan and Ukraine’s Liubov Kostenko.
Alex Eala now joins fellow Filipino Francis Casey Alcantara as the winners of historical firsts at the Australian Open. Alcantara and Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Chen-peng won the Australian Open Boys Doubles Title in 2009.
Going into the Aussie Open Finals game, 14-year-old Alex Eala was seeded Top 9 in the ITF junior tennis rankings released January 13, 2020 with 1452.5 points scored in 22 games she played in 2019, including leading Team Philippines to its first Asia Oceania Championship title.
During the Australian Open, Alex Eala’s ranking improved to 8th.
SEND CONGRATULATIONS in the comments below to Alex Eala and her partner Priska Madelyn Nugroho for winning the Girls’ Doubles Title in the Australian Open!
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