Alex Eala Photo from Alex Eala's Facebook
TENNIS

Eala bows to German foe, ends Mexican journey

Ivan Suing

Alex Eala suffered back-to-back losses to bomb out of the Guadalajara 125 Open in Mexico at the Metropolitan Tennis Complex on Wednesday.

The 19-year-old Filipino ace suffered a 5-7, 6-2 loss to world No. 99 Tatjana Maria of Germany in Round of 16 to kiss her chances in the women’s singles event goodbye.

It was such a heartbreaking setback for Eala as she gave her best in one hour and 33 minutes of action before surrendering to the more superior German netter.

Maria will be facing Olivia Gadecki of Australia in the quarterfinal for a win that will put her closer to the $15,000 prize money.

Prior to that, Eala posted a 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 win over Victoria Hu of the United States in the Round of 32. She will go home with a cash prize of $2,000.

Eala’s woes continues later in the day as she and her Australian partner Kimberly Birrell suffered a 4-6, 4-6 loss to Katarzyna Piter of Poland and Fanny Stollar of Hungary in the quarterfinals of the women’s doubles event.

Eala and Birrell will split the $2,000 cash prize for quarterfinal finishers.

The last time Eala won a doubles crown was last July when she and Estelle Cascino of France defeated Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria and Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia, 6-3, 2-6, 10-4, to win the W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz crown in Spain.