It’s the end of the road for Alex Eala and hometown bet Natsumi Kawaguchi as they lost to Great Britain’s pair of Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nichols, 0-6, 7-5, 6-10, in the semifinal of the W100 Tokyo women’s doubles tournament at the Ariake Tennis Center in Tokyo on Friday.
Eala, 18, and Kawaguchi endured one hour and 25 minutes of gameplay before eventually crumbling against the second-seed pair.
This also means the graduate of the world-famous Rafael Nadal Academy bows out completely from the tournament after already getting knocked out in the women’s singles by Australia’s Kimberly Birrell 6-4, 6-7, 2-6, in the round of 16 last Wednesday.
The Filipino-Japanese pair were able to make it this far in the tournament by beating Thailand’s pair of Luksika Kumkhum and Peangtarn Pilpuech, 6-4, 7-6, in the round of 16.
Then, Eala and Kawaguchi Georgia’s Sofya Lansere and Natela Dzalamidze, 4-6, 6-3, 12-10, in the quarterfinal to set up a match with Barmett and Nichols in the semifinal.
Eala, No. 195 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, is using this tournament to get ready for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China from 23 September to 8 October.
In the International Tennis Federation website, Eala withdrew from her participation in the W25 Guiyang women’s singles tournament in China, which will begin from 11 to 18 September.
Eala will be entering this year’s Asiad as one of the top medal bets for the Philippines as the country looks to improve on its 4-2-15 gold-silver-bronze medal tally from the 2018 edition in Jakarta.
