Alex Eala and Indonesian Priska Magdelyn Nugroho could not complete the turnaround as they absorbed a sorry upset from the unseeded pair of Switzerland’s Chelsea Fontenel and USA’s Ashlyn Krueger, 4-6, 6-4, 9-11, in the second round of the girls’ doubles tournament of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, Friday morning (Manila time).
The third-seeds and reigning Australian Open champions had the golden opportunity to follow up on their dominant win the other day; only Fontenel and Krueger proved equal to the challenge as they powered through that match tiebreak with four straight points from 7-9 down.
The Swiss-American pair dealt Eala and Nugroho their first dropped game after the Filipino’s serve to open the match.
That turned out to be the solitary break of the set and the difference as Fontenel and Krueger pocketed the set advantage.
Nonetheless, after getting broken on the Nugroho set at the first game of the second set, the Southeast Asians stormed back and broke the otherwise solid service game from Fontenel twice.
Eala and Nugroho also found their mark at the net to close out the second set with that second break of the Fontenel serve and sent the match to that super tiebreak.
This is just the second time Eala-Nugroho took a defeat as a pair after their loss in the J1 Roehampton tournament just last week.
The result also ended the stint of both Eala and Nugroho as the two lost their respective second round matches of the Championships in singles play.
