YOUNG Filipino tennis ace Alex Eala was looking to go even deeper at the 2020 French Open Juniors’ Grand Slam Tournament after reaching the quarterfinals of the girls’ singles play late on Wednesday (Manila time).

Fifteen-year-old Eala was set to face Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic on Court 12 at Roland Garros on Thursday night where she was in a position to further improve on her best performance in a Grand Slam event.

Reaching this year’s quarters of the French Open was the farthest she had reached to date, topping the third-round finish she had in the 2020 Australian Open in January.

The currently Mallorca, Spain-based Eala beat Spaniard Leyre Romero Gormaz (6-1, 4-6, 6-1) in the round of 16 to book her spot in the last eight.

The Filipino netter, who is a scholar of the Rafa Nadal Academy, stormed out of the gates in the opening round to get the early match lead.

She, however, hit a speed bump in the second that had her in a deep 1-5 hole at one point. Eala tried to recover by winning the next three games before Gormaz went for the closeout and levelled the match at 1-1.

In the third set, Eala regrouped and sped to a commanding lead and never allowed her opponent to gain much headway on her way to the big win.

Eala’s victory came a day after she was booted out of the doubles tournament with American teammate Elina Kalieva.

Her singles quarterfinal opponent Noskova was a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Flavie Brugnone of France in their own third-round encounter. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

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