Sweet rebound, sweet Milan double for Eala

MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala completed a rare double-championship, reigning supreme in both the girls’ singles and doubles events of the JA Milan last night in Italy.

The world juniors No. 3 and No. 1 seed in Milan smothered Czech Republic’s Nikola Bartunkova, 6-3, 6-3, in the singles finale that lasted an hour and 49 minutes.

It’s a quick, successful follow-up for the 16-year-old Filipina pride, who bagged the doubles crown with American partner Madison Sieg on Saturday.

She defeated Czech Brenda Fruhvirtova, Canada’s Kayla Cross, Russia’s Ksenia Zaytseva, Belgium’s Sofia Costoulas and another Russian Mirra Andreeva on the way to clinching her fourth juniors singles and ninth overall title.

Eala’s twin title in Italy was a sweet rebound from her quick exit in both the singles and doubles tilts of the Wimbledon juniors championships last week in London – her first grass court tourney.

Eala and Sieg were also the No. 1 seed tandem in the girls’ doubles, proving it with a feisty 6-4, 4-6, 13-11 finals victory over Croatia’s Lucija Ciric Bagaric and Costoulas.

It’s the fifth juniors doubles title for Eala, whose growing trophy case included two doubles Grand Slam crowns after winning the 2020 Australian Open and 2021 French Open last month.

Eala and Sieg romped past the ace Russian pairs of Kira Pavlova and Diana Shnaider, Anastasiia Gureva and Ekaterina Maklakova, and Yaroslava Bartashevich and Ksenia Zaytseva. Their other win came at the expense of Romania’s Stefania Bojica and Portugal’s Matilde Jorge.