(Photo courtesy of Alex Eala's Facebook account)
MANILA – Alex Eala barged into her first-ever semifinal stint in the professional tennis ranks after beating French opponent Carole Monnet, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the ITF Rafa Nadal Academy World Tour in Manacor, Spain on Saturday (Manila time).
Despite squandering a huge Set 1 lead, the Filipina tennis player recovered and took the next two sets to beat Monnet.
She looked poised to take down Monnet early on with a 4-1 lead in the first set.
Monnet, however, bounced back with four straight wins to take a 5-4 advantage before holding off Eala in the end to clinch Set 1.
Eala got back to her groove to win a hotly contested Set 2 before pulling away midway into the final set to take the win.
Before the victory, she pulled off the biggest shocker in the tournament after knocking out top seed Seone Mendez, 6-4, 6-1, in the Round of 16. (PNA)
