Alex Eala, partner enter Australian Open girls doubles final

Filipino tennis player Alex Eala. RAFAEL NADAL ACADEMY PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Filipino protégé Alex Eala and her partner Priska Nugroho of Indonesia advanced to the final of the girls doubles event of the 2020 Australian Open Thursday at Melbourne Park.

Eala and Nugroho scored a stunning upset over top-ranked Europeans Kamila Bartone of Latvia and Linda Fruhvirtova of Czech Republic, 1-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-8) in the semifinals.

The Southeast Asian pair will take on the winner between the United States’ Savannah Broadus & Elizabeth Coleman and Slovenian Ziva Valkner and British Matilda Mutavdzic the final.

After a disastrous first set, Eala and Nugroho gutted it out in the second with a 4-4 tie then jumped on that stalemate to take the set.

Trailing 7-1 in the tiebreaker, the two pushed back once more capitalizing on the Europeans’ errors to take the match.

Eala, who reached the third round of the singles competition, is ranked no. 9 in the world’s juniors circuit.