Alex Eala and Petra Marcinko of Croatia yielded to Czech third seed Miriam Kolodziejova and Marketa Vondrousova, 7-5, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of the W80 Poitiers doubles event in France Wednesday, Oct. 26.
The unseeded Eala and Marcinko showed nerves of steel in the opening frame but just couldn’t convert it to victory, before losing steam in the second frame to bow out of contention.
A win for Eala and Marcinko could have earned them a semis meeting with fellow unseeded Conny Perrin of Switzerland and Fang-Hsien Wu of Chinese Taipei, who stunned second pick Ji-Hee Choi of South Korea and Peangtam Plipuech of Thailand, 6-2, 4-6, 10-4.
Meanwhile, Eala battles Russian eighth seed Vitalia Diatchenko in the singles quarterfinals at presstime.
The 17-year-old Eala, who had to go through a two-round qualifying, was coming off a 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (6) win over Frenchwoman Jessika Ponchet, while Diatchenko advanced via a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 triumph over wildcard bet Marine Partaud.
At 32, Diatchenko boasts of more experience compared to Eala with 24 International Tennis Federation (ITF) singles titles tucked under her belt including two this year in Portugal and France.
Eala, for her part, is seeking her third pro title.