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.