The Philippines’ Alex Eala and Amanda Gabrielle Zoleta reached the second round of the girls singles on Wednesday in the Phinma-PSC International Juniors Championships Week 1 at Manila Polo Club in Makati.
Eala, 14, spearheaded the local girls’ campaign with an easy 6-0, 6-1 thrashing of Hsuan Huang of Chinese Taipei in the tough ITF Grade 4 tournament sponsored by the Philippine Tennis Association, Phinma, Philippine Sports Commission and Tecnifibre.
Wild card Zoleta stunned Skia Kung of Chinese Taipei, 6-2, 6-2, to book a place in the next round.
Their victory followed the rousing start of the Filipino boys led by last year’s Week 2 champion in singles Arthur Craig Pantino.
Seeded second here, Pantino clobbered Japan’s Ryotaro Koshiba, 6-0, 6-2 during Tuesday’s first round in boys singles.
Pantino was joined by compatriots Justin Suarez, Matthew Garcia and Aljon Talatayod in the next round. Suarez crushed Jerail Yasin of Indonesia, 6-2, 6-2; Garcia defeated Kun Liu of Chinese Taipei, 6-4, 6-2; while Talatayod outlasted Chen Yan-cheng also of Chinese Taipei, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5.
Top seed Mann Shah of India also got through, trouble-free, to the second round after a 6-3, 6-0 triumph over Japan’s Noritaka Koizumi.
Unfortunately, seven other Filipino boys fell by the wayside with Sebastien Lhuillier losing to Jean Marc Malkowski of Switzerland (6-2, 6-1), Loucas Julian Fernandez falling to Lo Yi-jui of Chinese Taipei (2-6, 6-4, 6-2), Marcus de Rosario losing to Kokoro Isomura of Japan (6-4, 6-3).
Jose Antonio Tria also lost to Hungarian fifth seed Zsombor Velcz (6-4, 6-3), Vince EJ Tugade dropped to Thai Patom Hanchaikul (6-2, 6-0), Jude Miguel Hidalgo bowed to Lin Nan-hsun of Chinese Taipei (6-0, 6-0), and Mark Nicole Suson fell to Corban Crowther of New Zealand (6-4, 7-6 (3).