FILIPINA tennis ace Alex Eala and Indonesian partner Priska Madelyn Nugroho booked their spot in the second round of the 2021 Wimbledon girls’ doubles tournament after they completed a dominant 6-0, 6-0 win over the pair of Japanese Erika Matsuda and American Valencia Xu at the at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in London on Wednesday evening, July 7, 2021 (Philippine time).
With their track record of success playing together, having clinched the 2020 Australian Open girls’ doubles title, the tandem of Eala and Nugroho—who are seeded third in this competition—played flawlessly as they blanked their opponents and wrapped the first set up in a mere 15 minutes.
The second set was a virtual repeat of the first as the 16-year old Eala, the no. 3 ranked juniors player in International Tennis Federation standings, and the 18-year old Nugroho, ranked no. 21 on that very same list, showed that they were in a class above their opponents as they held them from scoring a single point en route to winning the match in just 32 minutes.
The Eala-Nugroho pair will next face the winner of the match between the team of Swiss netter Chelsea Fontenel and American Ashlyn Krueger, and the pairing of Oceane Babel of France and Evialina Laskevich of Belarus.
Eala will not have much time to celebrate as she is also set to battle Ane Mintegi Del Olmo in the second round of the girls’ singles tournament. She opened her campaign with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Solana Sierra of Argentina.