THE spirited run at the W25 Platja D’Aro tournament in Spain of doubles partners Alex Eala of the Philippines and Oksana Selekhmeteva concluded with a runner-up finish on Saturday (Manila time).

The Eala-Selekhmeteva tandem lost to Justina Mikulskyte and Oana Georgeta Simion, 3-6, 5-7, in the women’s doubles final, which marked the Filipino tennis sensation’s first trip to a professional doubles championship match.

Mses. Eala and Selekhmeteva dug themselves in a deep hole in the opening set, going 1-5 down and never recovered from it.

In the second set, they performed far better, standing toe-to-toe with their Lithuanian-Romanian team opponent.

The Filipino-Russian duo tried hard to extend the contest to a deciding third set but Mses. Mikulskyte and Simion were not to be denied as they took advantage of every opportunity they could get, including racking up three straight points to overhaul a 40-15 deficit in the final game, en route to closing out the contest for the win.

Despite falling short, Ms. Eala, who just turned 16 years old, was still grateful for the solid run they had in the doubles tournament and the opprotunity to further develop her game as a professional.

“Happy to earn my first pro doubles finalist trophy,” Rafa Nadal Academy scholar and long-time Globe ambassador Eala wrote in a post on her Facebook page. “Thanks to my partner, Oksana!”

In the W25 Platja D’Aro doubles tournament, Mses. Eala and Selekhmeteva defeated Valeria Koussenkova of Spain and Warona Mdlulwa of South Africa, 6-2, 6-0, in the opening round then beat the Russian duo of Vlada Koval and Sofya Lansere, 6-3, 2-6, 12-10, in the quarterfinals. They dominated the Dutch tandem of Isabelle Haverlag and Suzan Lamens, 6-3, 6-1, in the semifinals.

Next for Ms. Eala, the number three-ranked juniors player in the world, is the French Open juniors tournament in June. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

THE innovative one-on-one tournament of the National Basketball League (NBL), its women’s division WNBL, and Isolation Basketball Championship (IBC) was successfully held at the weekend with Allana Lim and Teytey Teodoro among the inaugural winners.

Designed to deviate from the traditional way of staging one-on-one competitions, the NBL-WNBL-IBC 1v1 tournament had organizers classifying players according to their weight.

Ms. Lim, who will play for the Parañaque Lady Aces in the coming season of the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL), ruled the light heavyweight division while former Barangay Ginebra player Teodoro won the men’s heavyweight division in the proceedings held last Saturday at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center in San Fernando, Pampanga.

In winning the women’s lightweight heavyweight title, Ms. Lim beat Snow Peñaranda (20-17).

Ms. Lim pulled away after scoring four straight points in the third and final round of the contest.

Mr. Teodoro, meanwhile, defeated Arnaud Noah (20-15) in the main event for the men’s side.

Other results saw Raymart Amil blank Marvin Baracael (10-0) in the men’s welterweight for a technical knockout, which means a win with a margin of 10 points or more; Jhenn Angeles defeat Angelica De Austria in the women’s lightweight (17-6); Jolina Go win over Nicole Delos Reyes (14-4) in the women’s featherweight; and Topeng Lagrama beat Mark Tamayo (18-8) in the featherweight class.

Two matches, meanwhile, ended in a free-throw shootout at the end of regulation with Girly Villaflores edging Jo Razalo (19-17) in the women’s heavyweight and Sthefanie Venture winning over Nicole Cancio (14-12) in the women’s welterweight.

Officials of the NBL and WNBL said the 1v1 tournament served as an initial offering for their new season which they hope to kick up with the 5-on-5 tournament in the middle of the year.

It is also something they were looking to incorporate in the succeeding seasons.

The inaugural NBL-WNBL-IBC 1v1 basketball was held under strict health and safety protocols and guided by the Games and Amusements Board and the local government unit concerned. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo