Alex Eala will shift her focus to the 2021 Wimbledon juniors tournament after the Filipina teen tennis sensation made a quarterfinal exit in the J1 Roehampton event on Friday, July 2.
Eala had cruised past German Mara Guth to improve her head-to-head win record to 3-0 after a dominant 6-4, 6-2 win in the Round of 16.
But the 16-year-old suffered an upset to No. 8 seed Linda Fruhvirtova of Czech Republic with a 6-4, 6-1 loss in the quarterfinals.
Eala officially exited from the juniors warm-up event after she and Indonesian partner Priska Nugroho also fell to Czech Republic’s Barbora Palicova and Radka Zelnickova, 6-4, 6-4, on Thursday.
The Eala-Nugroho pair was seeded No. 2 in the event, bolstered by their 2020 Australian Open juniors doubles triumph, their maiden Slam title.
The juniors world No. 3 will be making her Wimbledon debut in the juniors tournament that will be staged from July 5 to 11 in London.
The Filipina tennis ace will be aiming for her third Grand Slam title after coming fresh off a 2021 French Open girls doubles title romp last June.
Eala also made history in the 2020 French Open where she became the first Filipino in 35 years since Felix Barrientos in the 1985 Wimbledon tournament to make the last four of a Grand Slam juniors singles event.
At 15 years old, Eala became a pro titlist in the women’s $15,000 tournament in Manacor, Spain at the start of the year. – Rappler.com
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