Alex bows to Scot

Alex Eala failed to reach the main round of the W100 Shrewsbury women's singles at The Shrewsbury Club in Shrewsbury, England after suffering a 1-6, 5-7 loss to hometown bet Maia Lumsden of Scotland in the second qualifying round Monday (Manila time).

This is Eala's first tournament loss after reaching a career-high No. 214 in the latest Women's Tennis Association rankings.

The No. 220 Lumsden, 24, only needed one hour and 27 minutes to eliminate the young scholar from the Rafael Nadal Academy.

Lumsden, a 2018 Shrewsbury champion, will go on to face Joanna Garland of Chinese Taipei in the first round of the main draw.

This is Eala's fifth professional tournament since winning the 2022 US Open girls' title last September.

She joined the W60 Templeton and W80 Rancho Sante Fe tournaments in California before going back to Europe for the W60 Hamburg in Germany where she got to at least the second round.

She made a deep run in the W80 Poitiers in France before getting knocked out again by Bonaventure in the semifinals.

Eala has yet to win her third professional title after winning the W15 Manacor last year and the W25 Chiang Rai last April.

After her run in the French tourney last Sunday, Eala's WTA ranking went up from No. 248 to No. 214.

Iga Swiatek of Poland remained the top women's singles netter at No. 1 while Filipino-Canadian Leylah Fernandez stayed put at No. 40 in the WTA rankings.