Eala rules France tourney

Alex Eala recently made a name on the global tennis scene by ruling the girls’ singles division of the Les Petits As-Le Mondial Lacoste in Tarbes, France, at the expense of the Czech Republic’s Linda Noskova, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Noskova, the seventh seed who took out top seeded Russian Diana Schnaider in the quarterfinals, seized the tight first set before the unseeded Eala struck back and evened up matters.

With match going down the wire, the 12-year-old Filipino cashed in on a Noskova error to close out her rival and become the event’s 36th girls’ champion.

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 make the finals.

“I need to build my ranking to qualify for the Grand Slams,” said Eala. —JUNE NAVARRO