Alex Eala took down Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia, 6-4, 6-3, in the round of 16 of the W80 Poitiers women’s singles at Comité Départemental De Tennis De La Vienne in Poitiers, France Thursday evening (Manila time).

The 17-year-old Filipino netter vanquished the Russian netter, ranked No. 107 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, in one hour and 23 minutes to get to the quarterfinal.

Eala, No. 248 in the WTA rankings, defeated hometown bet and tormentor Jessika Ponchet, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6, in the round of 32.

“Into quarterfinals here in Poitiers,” Eala posted on her social media.

The scholar of the Rafael Nadal Academy is now focused on winning the women’s singles after she and Petra Petra Marcinko of Croatia went down against Czech Republic netters Miriam Kolodziejová and Markéta Vondroušová, 7-5, 6-2, in the quarterfinal.

Awaiting the US Open girls champion is Ana Konjuh of Croatia.

While Konjuh ranks lower than Diatchenko at No. 153, Eala shouldn’t underestimate her opponent as the Croatian tennis player took out third seed Xinyu Wang, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, in a separate match.