ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Alex Eala falls to Australian foe in her quest for fifth ITF title in W25 Aldershot

Alex Eala falls to Australian foe in her quest for fifth ITF title in W25 Aldershot

Published Aug 20, 2023 02:42 pm

At A Glance

  • The fatigue has finally caught up to Alex Eala as she suffered a 6-3, 4-6, 1-6 finals defeat at the hands of familiar foe Destanee Aiava of Australia in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) W25 Aldershot GB Pro Series on Sunday night, Aug. 20 (Manila time) in Great Britain. 

The fatigue has finally caught up to Alex Eala as she suffered a 6-3, 4-6, 1-6 finals defeat at the hands of familiar foe Destanee Aiava of Australia in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) W25 Aldershot GB Pro Series on Sunday night, Aug. 20 (Manila time) in Great Britain.  

After two weeks of tireless display including a fourth ITF title in the W25 Roehampton, the third-seeded Filipina tennis star couldn’t hang tough around the streaking No. 6 seed Aiava in their second encounter in Great Britain. 

 

Eala had a promising start after jumping to a commanding 3-0 lead which she sustained at 5-2 before eventually taking the opening set. 

 

In the second set, however, Aiava found her tempo and responded with a 3-0 lead of her own which she managed to turn into a 5-1 deficit for Eala. 

 

The 18-year-old Eala then broke back and narrowed the gap at 4-5, even saving two set points but Aiava carried on with her timely found dominance. 

 

The Aussie, who claimed the Aldershot doubles crown a day prior with British partner Sarah Beth Grey, continued to subdue the Filipina bet in the third set for a 2-0 start. 

 

The 23-year-old Aiava even stretched the advantage to as much as 5-0 before Eala scored her first point in the decider with a love hold. 

 

But the 2022 US Open girls champion just couldn’t piece together winning moves to break Aiava and backed down from her quest for a fifth ITF title. 

 

From the moment the Filipina-Aussie first faced each other in Spain in June, Aiava has proved to be too much for Eala. 

 

The Filipina, though, managed to get back at the Australian in their second encounter in the Round of 16 of the Roehampton singles last week and even teamed up for the doubles event, where they fell in the quarterfinals.  

Still, Eala has had the best moments of her rising career in the past couple of months in her Europe tourneys. 

Related Tags

Alex Eala international tennis federation
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.