Filipina-Australian Lizette Cabrera made her 2021 Australian Open exit, dropping the opening round to world No. 2 Simona Halep on Monday, February 8, at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

The Romanian former world No. 1 swept Cabrera 6-2, 6-1, denying the 23-year-old the chance to make the 2nd round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

Though ranked world No. 140, Cabrera managed to challenge Halep by winning 3 games and drag the match to 59 minutes of action.

After Halep went up 4-0 in the opening set, Cabrera capitalized on the veteran’s errors to nail her first game of the match.

She also managed to delay Halep’s conquest of the opening set, with a forehand winner to gain an advantage and take her 2nd game after the Romanian’s back-to-back errors, 5-2.

In the 2nd set, Cabrera avoided a bagel and stunned Halep’s match point opportunity with backhand winner to go up 40-15 and forced the 29-year-old to an error.

But Halep closed out the match, forcing Cabrera to a wide shot.

Cabrera was given a wild card to her fourth Australian Open appearance since she turned professional in 2016.

Cabrera started playing tennis at the age of 4, and was exposed to a variety of sports such as golf and inter-school sports, but decided to focus on tennis at the age of 9.

In order to fund her tennis career, her parents Ronnie from Pampanga and Dolly from Basilan – who moved to Australia in their early 20s – worked in a slaughterhouse.

Now, the Filipino-Australian is based in Brisbane for her tennis career and managed to practice with world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, and other top Australian tennis players like Madisson Inglis, Kim Birrell and Priscilla Hon. – Rappler.com