Alex Eala and Japanese partner Natsumi Kawaguchi. —ALEX EALA FACEBOOK
MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala and Japanese partner Natsumi Kawaguchi barged into the W100 Tokyo doubles semifinal after staving off Natela Dzalamidze of Georgia and Sofya Lansere of Russia, 4-6, 6-3, 12-10, on Thursday in Japan.
The Filipino-Japanese pair recovered from a slow start and saved two match-point disadvantages in the deciding third frame as Eala brought them on the verge of victory followed by costly miscues from their No.3 seed opponents.
Eala and Kawaguchi take on No.2 seed Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls in the semifinal on Friday.
The 18-year-old Filipino is eyeing her first International Tennis Federation (ITF) doubles title.
Her bid to a fifth singles title, though, ended with a 6-4, 6-7(5), 2-6 loss to Kimberly Birrell of Australia in the second round on Wednesday.
The 195th-ranked player in the Women’s Tennis Association qualified for the main draw after sweeping Kanako Morisaki of Japan and No. 9 seed Anastasia Kulikova of Finland followed by a 6-4, 6-3 win over her partner Kawaguchi in the first round.