MANILA, Philippines, July 1 ------ Filipina tennister Alex Eala ended her run in the W25 Palma Del Rio in Spain on Thursday (early Friday morning, Manila time) after getting ousted in both the singles and doubles tournament.
Eala, who recently finished as a runner-up in a W60 tourney in Madrid, ended her stint in singles in the Round of 16, after getting steamrolled by Jessika Ponchet, 2-6, 1-6, in their match up. Against the second-seed, the 17-year-old struggled to get anything going. In the opening set, Eala looked to be gaining momentum when she slashed Ponchet's lead to one game, 2-3. But the French tennister flashed dominance to take three straight games and clinch the opening set, 6-2.
In the second set, Eala managed only to get one game when she held her serve in the third game. Other than that, it was all Ponchet who moved on to the quarterfinal.
Later in the day, Eala and partner Marina Bassols Ribera, suffered a similar beating against top-seed Fanny Stollar and Valeria Savinykh, 2-6, 0-6. The duo, who were the finalists in the W60 Madrid, got dispatched in just 49 minutes in the semifinal. Eala thus continues to search for her first ITF doubles title and her third overall in singles.
Source: philstar.com