Eala breezes past second round foe

Alex Eala is moving on from her Wimbledon exit. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Fresh from her Wimbledon heartbreak, Alex Eala wasted no time in disposing of her second round opponent on Wednesday in the Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan, Italy.

The 16-year-old Philippine pride, trying to forget her second-round exit at All England just a few days ago, has strung up two quick victories to advance in the Grade A tournament where she is the top seed.

She eliminated Kayla Cross, 6-1, 6-1, to progress to girls singles third round, repeating over the Canadian whom she defeated in J1 Villena in Spain last year.

It only took the Rafael Nadal Academy scholar 58 minutes to finish the job, encountering token opposition from the Canadian.

At 5-0 in the first set, she allowed Cross to break her serve before breaking back to clinch it. In the second set, the Canadian only managed to hold just once for 1-1.Eala had earlier bundled out 14-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova of Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-2, in the opening round of the clay courts tournament.

The Filipino, ranked third in the world in juniors, will battle either Celine Naef of Switzerland or Ksenia Zaytseva of Russia for a place in the quarterfinals.

In doubles, Eala partnered with Madison Sieg of the United States to beat Romania’s Stefania Bojica and Portugal’s Matilde Jorge, 6-2, 6-1, and will seek a quarterfinal slot against Russians Anastasia Gureva and Ekaterina Maklakova, who beat Czech Republic’s Amelie Smejkalova and Slovakia’s Sara Suchankova, 2-6, 6-3, (10-7).