Teen sensation Alex Eala of the Philippines fought for almost every point she won in the third set to put away Spanish netter Leyre Romero-Gormaz, 6-1,4-6, 6-1, and advance to the quarterfinals of the 2020 French Open's Roland Garros Junior Tennis Championships girls' singles.
The second seed Eala held her ground and fought Gormaz to closely-contested games as she took a 3-0 lead following two deuces in the third set.
Gormaz made it even harder in the fourth game, holding Eala to long exchanges but yielding after four deuces as the Filipina soared to 4-0 edge.
With her milestone victory, Eala made it to the quarterfinals as the highest-seeded player.
That's because giant-killer Alina Charaeva pulled off an upset win over top seed Victoria Kasintseva of Andorra, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, in the second round.
Charaeva also went on to advance to the quarterfinals with her 6-3, 6-1, triumph over Matilde Paoletti of Italy.
Czech netter Linda Nozkova, who eased out Flavie Brugnone of France, 6-1, 6-2, will clash with Eala for a seat in the semifinals.
It took Eala an hour and 48 minutes to get past Gormaz, who dealt Diana Schnalder of Russia a 6-3, 7-5 beating in the second round.
Eala scored 55 points off her 85 first serves and took 30 points on 55 second serves.
She made it to the third round after dispatching German Mara Guth, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.
Earlier, the Italian pair of Eleonora Alvisi and Lisa Pigato took three straight points in the deciding third set tiebreaker to ease out the third seed pair of Eala and United States Open partner Elina Kalieva in the girls' doubles Tuesday evening.
Eala is a Rafa Nadal Academy scholar in Mallorca,Spain and a Globe Ambassador since 2013. She is on track to win her first-ever singles' Grand Slam title. She became the first Filipina to win a Grand Slam title after winning the 2020 Australian Open juniors doubles' title early this year with Indonesian partner Priska Nugroho.
