Alex Eala continues to surge as she posted an impressive win to barge into the quarterfinals of the US Open girls' tournament in Flushing Meadows in New York on Wednesday.
The 17-year-old Eala needed one hour and 31 minutes to get past Taylah Preston, 6-2, 7-6, in the Round of 16 to book a ticket to the quarterfinals of this Grand Slam event.
With that, the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy scholar matched his run last year in which she made it to the quarterfinals before losing to Sebastiana Scilipoti of Switzerland, 5-7, 3-6.
Eala is playing her doubles partner in 14th seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia at press time for a slot in the Last Four.
Like in her Round of 16 match, Eala also has an edge over Andreeva on the world ranking. The Filipina tennis sensation ranks No. 297 while Andreeva is at 446.
Eala said results will come if she focuses on her performance.
"I'm not focusing too much on results at the moment," Eala said.
"My goal right now is improving my overall game. I believe the results will just follow."
In doubles play, Eala and Andreeva opened their campaign with a 55-minute victory over the American pair of Iva Jovic and Shannon Lam.
The fourth-seed tandem of Eala and Andreeva are set to face the German duo of Carolina Kuhl and Ella Seidel, which is still fresh from winning over Denislava Glushkova of Bulgaria and Raquel Gonzales Villar of Spain in 56 minutes of action.
