Alex Eala’s quest for a historic gold medal is off to a red-hot start as she clobbered Patcharin Cheapchandej of Thailand, 6-1, 6-0, in the Round of 16 of the women’s singles event of the 20th Asian Games on Monday at the Indoor Court C of the Higashiyama Park Tennis Center in Japan.

Despite heavy rains that forced the organizers to move the venue to an indoor court, the world No. 18 Eala was still unstoppable as she routed the hapless Thai from start to finish to book her spot in the quarterfinals in just 55 minutes of action.

Eala said moving to an indoor court wasn’t a big deal as she is determined to win the country’s first ever gold medal in lawn tennis since the legendary Johnny Jose clinched the title in 1962.

“At the end of the day, the measurements of the court are the same, the external factors are out of my control, and it’s not the first time that I played in conditions like this,” said Eala, who was originally set to play on Centre Court until the ugly weather condition in the Aichi Prefecture delayed the schedule by more than five hours and sent her to an indoor court.

True enough, the topseed Eala hardly broke a sweat.

Despite arriving late on Saturday following a disappointing campaign in the WTA 500 Singapore Open last week, Eala played with fire in her eyes as she won the first four games Cheapchandej — the world No. 517 — won her first game, 1-4.

It was all Eala from there as she displayed the skills, form and grace that made her the toast of the Women’s Tennis Association tour and a consistent Grand Slam campaigner. She capped her show of force with a booming ace, sending the Thai packing with a bagel.

The Filipina tennis ace will now hope to replicate the same resilience when she faces Joanna Garland of Chinese Taipei, also a Singapore Open competitor, in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Organizers have yet to reveal the venue but Eala vowed to go hard regardless of the surface they will play on.

“It’s a lot of patience, a lot of being ready. I just need to be open minded and be flexible,” the 21-year-old superstar said.

Meanwhile, Tenny Madis and Stefi Aludo beat Indonesia’s Anjali Junarto and Meydiana Reinnamah, 6-3, 7-6 (4), to advance to the Round of 16 of the women’s doubles event.

Madis and Aludo displayed chemistry in the opening set, cruising to a 6-3 victory over their Indonesian opponents.

In the second set, the Filipina duo took the early 3-1 lead before Junarto and Reinnamah stormed back and took four straight games to pull ahead, 3-5.

Madis and Aludo managed to adjust their strategy and recover to force a tie break, ending the match strong to get the victory.