Eala falls to Shnaider in Tokyo quarterfinal thriller

Alex Eala came close to turning the tables on world No. 13 Diana Shnaider of Russia but fell short, 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 4-6, in the quarterfinals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Friday.

The world No. 19 Filipina fought for two hours and 52 minutes but suffered her second straight defeat to Shnaider, following their meeting at the Ningbo Open in China last week.

Shnaider admitted she was pushed to her limits in the WTA 500 tournament.

“Honestly, I feel like this match deserved to be a final. It was an insane level of tennis from both of us. I didn't believe I would be able to pull off that win because she played incredibly well,” the Russian said.

“But I kept reminding myself to fight for every point. As you can see from the score, the second set was very tight. So, yeah, I just kept fighting for every point, and that paid off.”

Eala dominated the opening set, breaking Shnaider twice to take a 5-2 lead before serving out the frame, 6-2.

Neither player managed a break in the second set, forcing a tiebreak. Eala recovered from a 2-4 deficit to level the count at 5-5, but Shnaider won the next two points to take the tiebreak, 7-5, and force a decider.

Shnaider broke Eala early in the third set to build a 3-1 lead. The Filipina took a medical timeout but stayed within reach, holding serve twice to trail 4-5. Shnaider then closed out the match with an ace, 6-4.

Eala earned $33,475, or around P2.1 million, for reaching the quarterfinals after defeating world No. 411 Mika Stojsavljevic of Great Britain and world No. 38 Talia Gibson of Australia.

She is expected to return to her career-best ranking of No. 18 and is scheduled to compete next at the Hong Kong Tennis Open, which begins on 2 November.