By MARK MONTEJO
Top athletes know that having fun on the court can drive great performance.
Dubbed the “SEA-sters”, the Filipina-Indonesian pair of Alex Eala and Janice Tjen fully embraced the comfort and joy with one another, proving that right mentality leads to great outcomes as they stormed into the semifinals of the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi Open doubles event in the UAE Friday, Feb. 6.
“I think we’ve known each other for a while,” said Tjen after she and Eala posted a 6-3, 6-3 quarters win over Spaniard Cristina Bucșa and Chinese Shuai Zhang.
“Long time, long time, yeah. I think just being comfortable. To me, it’s like if I’m comfortable with that person, I can be true with who I am and I think that brings the best out of me,” she added.
Eala and Tjen had no problem dispatching their much-experienced rivals, besting Bucșa and Zhang in one hour and six minutes to arrange a semis date with Slovakian Tereza Mihalíková and British Olivia Nicholls later Friday.
“I don’t think there was anything specific. I think we were trying our best to be aggressive and like we said, having fun and being comfortable with each other,” said Eala.
“I think when you have a good relationship with a partner, you’re not afraid to go with your gut or if you make some errors, it’s okay,” she added. “Because you have that good chemistry and you’re not afraid to try what you feel.”
It can be recalled the two aces from the SEA region marked their first and only encounter in the circuit last September in WTA 250 Sao Paulo Open where Tjen defeated Eala in the quarters, 6-4, 6-1, before ending up as a runner up on Brazilian soil.
That, it seemed, was something to forget this time as Eala and Tjen are two wins away from being the doubles champion.
And great music, perhaps, provided another boost for the duo as they listened to the classic pop hit in 2001’s Lady Marmalade by artists Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and P!nk.
“We only have one. It’s the hey sisters, soul sisters [Lady Marmalade’s intro, it’s because we’ve called ourselves the SEA-sters,” said Eala.
“Like Southeast Asia [sisters],” Tjen continued.
