Filipina teen tennis star Alex Eala ended her International Tennis Federation (ITF) Rafael Nadal Academy World Tennis Tour campaign with a quarterfinals loss on Friday, February 5 in Manacor, Spain.

Eala fell to Russian junior tennis star Oksana Selekhmeteva, 6-2, 6-3, in the women’s $15,000 tournament.

In the opening set, Selekhmeteva, who entered the tournament as a junior reserved player as well, gained momentum when she limited Eala to only 3 points in 4 straight games.

The 15-year-old Filipino only found her footing once again when she broke serve after to cut the deficit to 5-2, but the Russian closed out the 1st set to her advantage.

Eala broke serve to start strong in the 2nd set, but the 18-year-old Russian pulled away from a 3-3 stalemate with 3 straight games to advance to the semifinals.

The Rafael Nadal Academy scholar also went on a medical timeout after Selekhmeteva gave her a run in receiving the ball before going up 2-1 in the 2nd set.

Like Eala, who won her first pro title in the 1st leg of the tour, Selekhmeteva and Spanish partner Angela Fita Boluda ruled the opening leg by clinching the doubles title over the Swiss duo of Ylena In-Albon and Valentina Ryser last January 24.

In the singles game, the Russian ITF junior world No. 7 made it to the 1st leg main draw as a qualifier, but lost to finalist Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers, who Eala defeated for the title in the finals.

In the 2nd leg, Selekhmeteva, who is the 2019 US Open girls doubles titlist, was booted out of the tournament by Swiss Simona Waltert.

After kicking off her three-week pro campaign with a title, Eala cracked into the top 1000 of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings at No. 942.

The juniors world No. 3 made a mark in the women’s circuit with big wins over ITF women’s singles No. 2 Seone Mendez , and Ana Lantigua de la Nuez, who currently ranks No. 52 in the ITF singles rankings and No. 619 in the WTA.

But in the 2nd leg of the tour, Eala failed to make it past the quarterfinals when she fell to In-Albon, who did not drop a set until her straight-set loss to Cavalle-Reimers in the semis.

After kicking off the 2020 season with her maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne, the teen tennis star became the Philippines’ first junior Grand Slam semifinalist in 35 years in the Roland Garros girls singles tournament. – Rappler.com