Rain couldn’t deny Eala’s rampage

The rain might have delayed her momentum but it could not deny Alex Eala’s rampage towards another finals appearance in an ITF tournament.

Alex Eala PHOTO FROM EALA’S FB PAGE 

The Filipino tennis ace dispatched Dutch Arianne Hartono, 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-1, at the W25 Roehampton singles semifinal in the United Kingdom on Saturday night, August 12 (Manila time).

Taking down the third seed in the tournament, sixth seed Eala was set to face third seed Russian-Aussie Arianne Hartono in the final on Sunday evening.

A victory in the said match would give Eala her fourth ITF singles title.

After earning a hard-fought first set win, Eala found herself down in the second frame, 1-4.

An attempt to flip things around got delayed from Eala as the match was paused for about an hour due to rain.

When play resumed, Eala had already lost her comeback mojo and Hartono marched her way to win the set and equalize the match.

Eala, though, made sure that she would dominate in the decider.

The 18-year-old Filipino jumped on her 27-year-old foe and raced to a 5-1 game lead.

Eala then broke Hartono’s serve in the seventh game to win the match.