Overcoming a first set bagel, Filipina tennis ace Alex Eala served one on her opponent in the third set and barged on to the medal round of the 2022 Asian Games women’s singles competition in tennis on Wednesday in Hangzhou.

Winning 0-6, 7-5, 6-0 in the quarterfinal match against the much experienced Kyoka Okamura of Japan, Eala scored on a winner off a down-the-line backhand slice to save her from a tiebreaker in the second set and stay alive.

Come the third set, the 18-year-old stalwart from the Rafa Nadal Academy scored 12 unanswered points and overcame three break points in the fifth break en route to the bagel.

Assured of at least a bronze medal, Eala will next face the winner between world number 23 Zheng Qinwen of China and ten-time ITF champion Park So-hyun of South Korea.

Aside from the sure Asiad medal, Eala previously won three bronze medals in the 2021 Southeast Asian Games; three Grand Slam junior titles, and four ITF plums.

In skateboarding, 2018 gold medalist Margie Didal failed to defend her title in the women’s street event, succumbing to an ankle injury on her second run and finishing dead last on eighth place in the final won by 13-year-old Chinese Cui Chenxi.

In swimming, former La Sallian UAAP champion Xiandi Chua entered the final of the women’s 400 meter individual medley, placing seventh in the heat stage.

Former Olympic medalist Kayla Sanchez, meanwhile, failed to enter the medal round in the 100 meter backstroke, placing ninth.

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