MANILA, Philippines — Filipina tennis ace Alex Eala and her partner Estelle Cascino of France advanced to the women's doubles final round of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women's 100 Tennis Tournament in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.

In Friday's semifinals, the pair defeated Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez of Mexico and Noella Zeballos of Bolivia in two sets, 6-2, 6-3.

Eala could clinch her third doubles title in Spain with Cascino, after the same pair won the ITF Open 3C Seine-et-Marne in Cascino's native France last March. Back in January, the Filipina teamed up with Latvia's Darja Semenistaja in claiming the women's doubles title at the ITF Nuc-Deccan Women's Doubles Tournament in Pune, India.

They are expected to face the pair of Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria and Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia, after they defeated the pair of Ukraine's Valeriya Strakhova and Great Britain's Eden Silva in their semifinal match in three sets, 3-6, 6-3, 12-10.

Meanwhile, at the women's singles quarterfinals, Eala defeated Ukrainian Yulia Starodubtseva in two sets 7-6, 6-4, advancing to the semifinals, where she will once again face off against Portillo Ramirez, who she and Cascino earlier defeated at the doubles semifinals. ARIC JOHN SY CUA