MANILA – No. 10 seed Alexandra “Alex” Eala of the Philippines reached the quarterfinals of the US Open Juniors for the second consecutive year, following her 6-2, 7-6(1) victory over No. 8 seed Taylah Preston of Australia.

Their third-round match was held on Wednesday at Court 9 of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York City.

Eala, 17, was the first to hold serve for a 3-1 edge after saving two break point opportunities.

She zoomed to 5-1 by breaking serve courtesy of a double fault, then sealing a love service hold with a backhand crosscourt winner.

While serving for the set at 5-2, Eala forced a netted backhand return to take the first set, 6-2.

Preston, 16, bounced back in the second set to advance to 4-1, but Eala equalized then converted a break point to serve for the match at 5-4.

Service breaks ensued until they reached 6-6, with Preston denying Eala the chance to serve out the match in the 10th and 12th games.

Despite the setback, Eala quickly recovered in the second-set tiebreak by soaring to 6-0 after a string of errors from Preston.

With six match points in place, Eala secured the win, 7-6(1), on her second match point by firing a crosscourt backhand shot that yielded a netted forehand return.

En route to the third round, Eala breezed past Annabelle Xu of Canada in the first round, 6-3, 6-0, and Nina Vargova of Slovakia in the second round, 6-2, 6-3.

In the quarterfinals, she will face off with her 15-year-old partner in the Junior Girls’ Doubles event, No. 14 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia.

Eala and Andreeva began their doubles campaign on Wednesday evening as the No. 4 seeds, overwhelming 14-year-old American wildcards Shannon Lam and Iva Jovic in the first round, 6-2, 6-2.

Next on the draw for the Filipino-Russian tandem is the German duo of Carolina Kuhl and Ella Seidel.

Eala, a former International Tennis Federation Juniors World No. 2, won the girls’ doubles championships at the 2020 Australian Open and 2021 Roland Garros.

Currently ranked World No. 297 on the Women’s Tennis Association Tour, the Rafa Nadal Academy player has two professional singles titles from the 2021 W15 Manacor in Spain and 2022 W25 Chiang Rai in Thailand.

• Alex Eala overpowers Slovak to reach US Open juniors Round 3
• Tennis: Alex Eala breezes past Canadian in US Open juniors

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