Eala gets boot in W75 Trnava tilt

MANILA, Philippines -- Alex Eala crashed out of the W75 Trnava in Slovakia after facing a brick wall in Czechia’s Tereza Martincova, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(3), Wednesday night (Manila time.)

Eala, who went to the round of 32 of the tournament after winning back-to-back qualification matches, ran out of gas against the seventh-seeded Martincova.

The Filipina tennister won the first set with ease, thwarting a comeback try by the Czechian to turn a 4-3 lead to a won 6-3 set.

In the second set, the 18-year-old Filipina turned a 0-3 disadvantage and tied it up at 4-all.

However, the 29-year-old won back-to-back games to clinch the deciding set.

In the third set, Eala moved to within a game to barge into the next round, going up 5-3.

But her foe was able to tie it up with a hard-fought 10th game to put it at a 5-5 deadlock.

The Filipina won the next game, and Martincova tied it up once again, forcing the tiebreak, which the latter eventually won.

The third set took over an hour as the entire match went for two hours and 36 minutes.

It was an early exit for Eala, who reached another career-high of no. 176 in the WTA rankings this week.

She earlier defeated Germany’s Nastasja Schunk and Belarus’ Ivryna Shymanovich in the qualifying rounds to reach the main draw of the tourney.