At A Glance
- Alex Eala couldn't maintain her early surge and succumbed to Indonesia's Janice Tjen, 4-6, 1-6, in their quarterfinal match at the WTA 250 São Paulo Open early Saturday, Sept. 13 (Philippine time).
Alex Eala (Premier Sports 2 / Blast TV)
Alex Eala couldn’t maintain her early surge and succumbed to Indonesia’s Janice Tjen, 4-6, 1-6, in their quarterfinal match at the WTA 250 São Paulo Open early Saturday, Sept. 13 (Philippine time).
Riding a seven-match win streak, the 20-year-old Eala looked poised for another victory after storming to a 3-0 lead in the opening set. But Tjen responded with a fiery comeback, leveling the score in the first and eventually flipping the momentum to her favor.
Eala, 20, showed promise in the second frame by taking the first game. However, Tjen fired powerful forehands and serves to completely take the fight out of the third seed in the competition.
With her come-from-behind triumph, Tjen booked a semifinal date with either second seed Argentinian Solana Sierra or sixth seed British Francesca Jones.
The country’s top player and current world No. 55 Eala, for her part, ended her string of victories which came all the way back from her title win in the WTA 125 Guadalajara Open in Mexico.
Eala and Tjen were both fresh off their historic runs in this year’s US Open after the Southeast Asian top bets notched respective wins in the prestigious meet.
Prior to her exit, Eala showed pure dominance in her last two games where she toppled France’s Yasmine Mansouri (6-0, 6-2) and Argentina’s Julia Riera (6-1, 6-4) in Rounds of 32 and 16, respectively.
The Filipina ace immediately made her presence felt off a 3-0 breakaway before she overcame Tjen’s run and broke the deadlock to grab a 4-3 lead.
But the world No. 130, despite her several faults, stormed back and snatched the set before going on a 6-0 blast in the second frame to stun the weary Eala in their one hour and 12 minutes duel.