Eala smashes rare twin kills

Alex Eala was in seventh heaven snaring a rare twin championship after winning both the singles and doubles women’s titles in an amazing run in the W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz at the Peña Vitoriana Tennis Club in Spain.

In a spectacular display of her skills throughout the highly competitive tilt, Eala cemented her status as one of the sports’ most promising young talents.

Eala and French partner Estelle Cascino defeated Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria and Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia in a thrilling, 6-3, 2-6, 10-4, decision in the women’s doubles final last Saturday.

Hours after her doubles conquest, No. 5 seed Eala dispatched seventh-seeded Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva of Andorra, 6-4, 6-4, in the centerpiece women’s single’s championship on Sunday.

Emotions poured in when the 19-year-old netter finally completed the sweep in the second set, which saw the Filipina rally from a 2-3 deficit.   

“This win means the world to me, it even made me ugly cry. I am so proud because this represents the culmination of so much hard work,” Eala said.

The Rafael Nadal Academy graduate was on fire the whole tournament that she did not drop a single set on her way to taking the singles crown.

She cruised past Dutch Lian Tran, 6-4, 6-2 before taking down Spaniard Lucia Cortez Llorca, 7-5, 7-5; Ukraine’s Yullia Starodubtseva, 7-6 (5), 6-4; and Mexico’s Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez, 6-2, 6-1.

Rampaging Eala and Cascino, on the other hand, hurdled local bets Carolina and Jimena Gomez, 6-3, 6-2; Czech Republic’s Victoria Bervid and Italy’s Laura Mair, 6-4, 6-1; before turning back Bolivia’s Noelia Zeballos Melgar and Mexico’s Maria Ramirez, 6-2, 6-3, in the semifinal.