Nonetheless, she did not come down without putting up a fight.
On Friday, October 30, Filipina tennis star returned to action at the Pan Pacific Open in Japan. There, she met a familiar opponent in Russian netter Diana Shnaider.
The day’s match marks their next meet-up after their previous game at the Ningbo Open in China the week prior.
There, Shnaider, who is current world no. 13, was able to put an early end to the journey of Eala, who sits at no. 20 in the global rankings, and showed her the door during the second round.
This time around, they are facing each other in the quarterfinals of the Japanese WTA 500 tournament, with the Filipina looking to redeen herself from the heartbreak that she had gotten from the Russian.
In the first set, Shnaider showed early dominance after winning the opening game. Eala was able to stage a rebound and gained control and closed out the set on top.
But in the second set, Alex faced a much staunchier competition as Diana staged to make a comeback and push the game into a decider.
They were able to reach a tiebreak play after scoring 6-6. In which, Shnaider was able to erode the lead made by Eala and went for a third set.
In the final set, the Filipina player had a medical timeout after feeling something on her left foot. Eventually, the Russian was able to find her own footing and take victory in the match.
The final scoreline was 6-2, 6(5)-7(7), 4-6.
After this match, Alex is reportedly joining the Hong Kong Tennis Open to close out her current season in the WTA tour.
