Playing fantastic form, Alex Eala has made a name in the international tennis scene.
The unseeded Filipina ruled the Les Petits As-Le Mondial Lacoste in Tarbes, France by capturing the girls singles title at the expense of Czech tennis wonder Linda Noskova in a 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (5) cliffhanger.
Noskova, the seventh seed who took out top seeded Russian Diana Schnaider in the quarterfinals, seized the tight first set before Eala, the top singles player in the under-14 age bracket based on the Asian Tennis Federation rankings, struck back and evened up matters.
With match going down the wire, the 12-year-old Eala cashed in on a Noskova error to close out her rival and write history as the 36th girls champion of the celebrated tournament.
Eala, a wildcard recipient and part of 2017 Tennis Europe Junior Tour Doubles Team of the year, defeated Belgian qualifier Sofia Costoulas in the preliminaries before beating unseeded Japanese Kyoka Kubo and Hungarian 13th seed Katerina Dimitrova to set up the finale against Noskova.
Eala said she would be ready in time for the grand slam juniors in May.
“I need to build my ITF ranking to qualify for the grand slams,” said Eala.