It is not the start Alex Eala would like for the year.
Eala could not complete her comeback against top-seeded Alice Rame of France, 2-6, 4-6. She misses the main draw of the 2021 ITF Women’s World Tour W25 leg, Tuesday at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Manacor, Spain.
Eala won her first-ever professional tour title with a win in the same tournament last year when it was a W15 tournament. She likewise decided to focus on the professional circuit to try and climb the ranks of the WTA; therefore, foregoing her defense of her Australian Open girls’ doubles title with Indonesian Priska Madelyn Nugroho.
The 16-year-old was off to a rousing start in the second set after piercing through three straight games for a 3-0 lead.
Nonetheless, world no. 375 Rame found a way to put the frame back on serve with a combination of winners. She also forced the younger Eala to commit errors.
Rame and Eala then traded breaks of serve for a 4-all deadlock, before the 24-year-old top seed took advantage of the miscues from the Filipina. Rame took another service break for a 5-4 lead, followed by a service hold for the win.
The first set was tight at the onset, with Eala coming back to level the set at two games apiece. Rame then emerged victorious in the next three games that went down-the-wire. She eventually finished off the frame with back-to-back service aces to pocket the set advantage.
The result saw Rame into the main tournament, while leaving Eala out of her first tournament of the year.
Eala earlier dominated her first two matches of the qualifiers with rousing wins over Slovenia’s Ella Hojnik, 6-1, 6-1, and Slovakia’s Mia Chudejova, 7-6, 6
