Alex Eala exited her first W60 tournament as she could not repeat over hometown bet Simona Waltert, 5-7, 6-3, 2-6, at the 2021 ITF World Tennis Tour, Friday in Bellinzona, Switzerland.
The 15-year-old earlier defeated the world No. 284 in the first round of W25 Manacor just last month — a week after the latter sent Eala packing after just the first match in the Leg 4 of the W15 tournament at the same venue.
Eala started the match well after a 3-1 opener, but Waltert slowly got her groove to level the set at 5-all. The Swiss then took that momentum to eventually take the set advantage.
In the second set, despite some struggles on the serve, the Filipino turned into her returns to lead the set again at 3-1.
This time, there was no turning back for Eala even as Waltert took two consecutive games on a break and a hold of serve.
Waltert was the one who led in the deciding set at 3-1 after she broke Eala’s serve in the fourth game.
The Swiss yielded just a solitary break to Eala in the following game but broke back to take the 4-2 lead. Waltert then held serve and denied Eala a lease of life, finally taking the set and the match.
