Alex Eala sees unfortunate turn, falls in W50 Trnava singles, doubles 

MANILA, Philippines – The wins came in twos for Alex Eala in Slovakia. Unfortunately, so did the losses. 

Eala could not sustain her strong start in the ITF W50 1st Empire Women’s Indoor 2024 and fell in both singles and doubles on Friday, March 1, in Trnava.

The 18-year-old was outlasted by fellow teenager Anastasiia Gureva of Russia in the singles quarterfinal, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (3), then missed out on a doubles finals spot when she and Zeynep Sonmez of Russia suffered a 6-2, 6-2 beatdown inflicted by Lulu Sun of Switzerland and Moyuka Uchijima of Japan in the semifinal.

After two straight-set victories in singles, Eala got off to a sluggish start against the 18-year-old world No. 475 Gureva, who received a junior exempt berth to the main draw of the ITF $40,000 event held at the TC Empire Trnava Tennis Complex.

Eala could not get herself going early and found herself staring at a 0-4 deficit in the first set. The Filipina star finally held serve in the fifth game to get on the scoreboard, but it was not enough to derail a streaking Gureva who went up a set after the 10th game. 

The second frame afforded Eala a chance to reset and she made the most of the opportunity. Although Gureva managed to keep the match tied until the sixth game, Eala stormed through the next three games to even the count at one set apiece. 

Eala had her chances to close out the match in the 12th game of the deciding set. Up at 6-5, she fended off three break points and held two match points that unfortunately, she could not capitalize on. 

Gureva converted on the fourth break point to extend the set to a tiebreak and seized control from that point on, racing to a 4-0 advantage that provided her enough cushion even with Eala attempting a fight back by narrowing the gap to 3-4. 

That proved to be the Filipina’s last hurrah as Gureva rattled off three straight points to finish the long, grind-out match after two hours and 29 minutes.

In the doubles semifinal, Eala and Sonmez found themselves unable to match the energy of Sun and Uchijima, who were coming off a confidence-boosting quarterfinal upset of second seeds Estelle Casino of France and Jesika Maleckova of the Czech Republic. 

It was the second time the Eala-Sanmez duo fell short of a finals appearance. Last November, the pair also reached the semifinal round of the ITF Luxembourg.

Eala, now ranked a career-high 180th in the world, will remain in Slovakia where she’s set to compete in the ITF W75 2nd Empire Women’s Indoor 2024 starting March 4 in the same venue. – Rappler.com