Alex Eala and her partner, Emilie Lindh Gallagher of Great Britain, wasted 1-0 set advantage and suffered a 6-4, 3-6, 3-10 loss against Estelle Cascino of France and Latvia’s Diana Marcinkevica at the W60 Barcelona women’s doubles tournament in Spain Thursday morning (Manila time).
Eala and Gallagher fought together for one hour and 21 minutes before the third-seed pair of Cascino and Marcinkevica ultimately won the match.
The Filipino graduate of the world-famous Rafael Nadal Academy has yet to win a women’s doubles title in her professional career.
While her women’s doubles stint in the tournament might have been cut short, Eala still has a chance to make a deep run in the women’s singles division.
Eala, No. 248 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings won over Marcinkevica in the Round of 32 due to a walkover by the Latvian, setting up a match with Germany’s Eva Lys in the Last 16.
Three-time Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist was already leading, 3-0, in the first set when Marcinkevica retired from the match, giving Eala the win.
The second-seed Lys took down local netter Yvonne Cavallé Reimers, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6, in a separate match to set up a duel with Eala.
Eala is also training for her debut in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China from 23 September to 8 October.
“Onto round 2 here in Barcelona,” Eala posted on her social media page.
