To be frank, open tennis is not
exactly a sport that sees Filipino players consistently excelling in. The few
times a tennis ace from the Philippines actually makes good showing against
foreign opponents are more like flashes in the pan and not likely to be
sustainable. But when a Filipino makes a mark on a worldwide-level tennis
court, that one is sure to catch a lot of attention. The 2020 Australian Open
is now headed towards its final matches for singles and doubles titles for both
genders and across age groups. But this Friday a powerful teen girl has proven
Pinoys can win Tennis Majors.
Inquirer.net has it that the Girls’ Doubles tournament in the 2020
Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia ended in victory for 14-year-old
Alexandra “Alex” Eala of the Philippines and her Indonesian partner Priska
Madelyn Nugroho. The finals for Girls’ Doubles, held this January 31, saw Eala
and Nugroho pitted against the doubles team of Slovenian Ziva Falkner and
Briton Matilda Mutavdzik. The other pair never stood a chance as the
Filipina-Indonesian tandem shut them out in two sets, 6-1 and 6-2, to claim the
championship title for Girls’ Doubles, for junior-aged players listed in the
ITF.
When the Australian Open Girls’
Doubles defending champions Natsumi Kawaguchi of Japan and Adrien Nagy of
Hungary did not compete (Nagy having outgrown the Junior category and Kawaguchi
opting not to play without her partner), the way was open for a new doubles
tennis champion for girls. The Eala-Nugroho tandem was seeded fourth, and made
short work of opposing doubles comprising players from France, Russia and the
Ukraine, before taking on Myadzik and Falkner in the finals. In this
achievement, Eala has won for the Philippines its first Tennis Major title in
quite some time.
It was some 11 years ago, back in
2009, when Filipino tennis player Francis Casey Alcantara won the championship
for the Australian Open Boys’ Doubles alongside his partner from Chinese
Taipei, Hsieh Chen-peng. By her joint triumph this Friday, Alex Eala saw her
Junior-level ranking in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) jump all the
way to Number 9 in the world. It is not bad for a scholar of the tennis academy
of Rafael Nadal, and payback of sorts for the sake of her teacher who seeded
out Wednesday, January 29, losing to Dominic Thiem.
0 comments:
Post a Comment