MANILA — Filipino qualifier Alexandra “Alex” Eala dug deep to reach the second round of the W80 Poitiers in France on Tuesday, including forcing a decider and saving six match points against Frenchwoman Jessika Ponchet.

A few hours later, Eala and Petra Marcinko of Croatia ousted Yuliya Hatouka and Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus to advance to the doubles quarterfinals of the $80,000 ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour event.

At the Center Court of Comité Départemental de Tennis de la Vienne, WTA World No. 248 Eala finally defeated WTA World No. 161 Ponchet in their third meeting, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(6).

Eala, 17, raced to a 5-0 lead but failed to convert her first set point as Ponchet broke serve to trail at 1-5.

Serving for the set at 5-2, Eala gained two more set points and took the first set, 6-2, after her backhand slice yielded a forehand error.

In the second set, the reigning US Open Girls’ singles winner continued to dominate her 26-year-old French opponent, 4-2, until the momentum shifted.

At 5-5, Ponchet fired three of her 16 aces in the 11th game to be at 6-5, then broke serve to force a deciding set, 7-5, after Eala’s backhand approach shot was called out.

Both players held serve comfortably in the third set, until Eala earned four break points – three in the seventh game and one in the ninth game – all of which were saved by Ponchet.

With Eala serving to stay in the match at 4-5, she remained resilient in the face of Ponchet’s six match points.

Six deuces later, a long backhand from Ponchet allowed Eala to equalize at 5-5. They went on to battle it out in a tiebreak after reaching 6-6.

Ponchet immediately took the lead, 3-1, and improved this to 5-3 with an ace.

Eala responded by winning the next three points and earning her first match point at 6-5, which was saved by a Ponchet ace.

A backhand error gave Eala her second match point, and another backhand mistake caused Eala to triumph, 7-6(6).

In the second round, the 2021 W15 Manacor and 2022 W25 Chiang Rai champion will face either French qualifier and WTA World No. 410 Marine Partaud or Russian No. 8 seed and WTA World No. 107 Vitalia Diatchenko.

The Filipino teen sensation, the No. 4 seed in qualifying, beat Astrid Cirotte and Diana Martynov with the same score, 6-1, 6-2, in the qualifiers.

Meanwhile, Eala and 16-year-old Marcinko overwhelmed Hatouka and Shymanovich, 6-2, 6-3, in their first-round match at Court 1 later in the day.

In the quarterfinals, the teenage tandem will seek to upset Czech No. 3 seeds Miriam Kolodziejova and Marketa Vondrousova, who received a bye in the opening round.

• Alex Eala easily qualifies for W80 France main draw
• How Alex Eala became a world-class tennis champion

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