The tandem of Alex Eala of the Philippines and Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia won the girls doubles title of the French Open on Saturday night.

Ranked first, they beat eighth seeds Maria Bondarenko of Russia and Amarissa Klara Toth of Hungary, 6-0 7-5. However, it was not easy for the Filipino-Russian tandem as their rivals rallied to take the lead at 4-2 in the second set. The eventual champions made their own rally courtesy of Eala’s strong service game and Selekhmeteva hitting the championship point by the net, overcoming their rivals.

On Friday, the duo beat defending champions Eleonora Alvisi and Lisa Pigato of Italy to make it to the finals of the French Open girls doubles.

The win by the Filipino-Russian tandem could see the 15-year old Eala’s world rankings improve.

In January this year, Eala won her first title in the professional ranks after ruling the ITF Rafa Nadal Academy World Tour in Spain.

And in February, the Filipino Eala climbed 53 spots to 662 from 715 in the World Tennis Association rankings.

In January last year, Eala made the country proud when she teamed up with Priska Nugroho of Indonesia to rule the 2020 Australian Open juniors doubles tournament in Melbourne Park, Australia.

Eala, then only 14, and her Indonesian partner swept the European duo of Slovenia’s Ziva Falkner and Britain’s Matilda Mutavdzic, 6-1, 6-2, to win the championship.

Eala also became the first Filipino to win a juniors grand slam since Francis Casey Alcantara also captured the Australian Open boys’ doubles title with Hsieh Cheng-peng of Taiwan in 2009.