The Filipina also won the doubles title alongside the FRENCH Estelle Cascino in a match that was decided in a tie break.
Predictions are made to be broken and in the semi-finals of the Araba World Tennis Tour, talent and good tennis won out over favouritism. In many cases, the rankings are of no importance, but rather the sensations that both Alexandra Eala and Victoria Jiménez are, the finalists of this fifth edition, have sweat day after day on the courts of the Peña Vitoriana Tenis Club.
The Rafa Nadal Academy’s top student, Alexandra Eala, had been warning of her ability to aspire to reach the final of an ITF 100,000. With experience from other editions in the capital of Alava, the 19-year-old Filipina completed an impeccable match, with no faults, closing each set emphatically. The opening break in the first set was the way to not give any options to the Mexican Portillo. And so did the Wimbledon junior champion in 2022. With deep balls and light like speed to each stroke. After the 6-2 in the opening set, she owned a duel that was decided with a resounding 6-1 in the second. It is worth mentioning that Joan Bosch’s pupil has not dropped a single set in the whole tournament.
The big surprise came from Victoria Jiménez who was able to dethrone the favourite and winner of the 2022 edition, Jessika Ponchet. With relentless aggression from the Andorran, every point went her way and the French woman was soon out of the match.
With a wide repertoire, her forehand, backhand, first serve and even volley shots were bearing fruit until she took the first set 6-2. The expected reaction from the player from Bayonne did not come. Stiff and a bit frustrated, she couldn’t get her first serve in and even her rises to the net were countered by Jiménez’s winners. The Andorran did not get out of a perfect script to defeat the number 2 seed of the tournament and fulfil a dream, to be in the final of Vitoria, as her friend Ane Mintegi did in 2021 with whom she was paired in the doubles competition of that edition. Victoria was only 14 years old. Today she is part of a generation that is demanding a place among the world’s top 100. Her WTA ranking, for the moment, is number 231. Her opponent in the final, Eala, is ranked 155.
The final will be played this Sunday at 12:00. A wheelchair tennis exhibition will be held beforehand at 10.30am.
Alexandra Eala and Estelle Cascino, doubles champions
The Araba Aldundia centre court at the Peña Vitoriana Tenis Club hosted the doubles final, with Eala doubling up after the match-up of her singles semi-final in the morning. Bulgarian Lia Karantancheva and Latvian Diana Marcinkevica had shown in the tournament a great understanding and could start with some favouritism, but soon the former began to dominate the match with the French dominating the net and Eala making her backhand powerful. After dominating the first set by 3-6, in the second set their opponents began to break their serve, which helped them to gain confidence and manage to balance the clash, taking the second set 6-2. The French-Filipino pair comfortably won tiebreak 4-10m whisking the title away.