Alex Eala had her chances but failed to capitalize as she fell in defeat on Sunday, June 19, to 14th seed Spaniard Marina Bassols Ribera, 4-6, 5-7, in the finals of the W60 VIII Open ITF Arcadis Brezo Osuna at the Club Deportivo Brezo Osuna in Madrid, Spain.
After dropping a close opening set, Eala seemed to have regained her bearing in the second set and was on her way to extending the championship match to a decider as she zoomed to a 5-0 advantage.
Bassol Ribera, however, managed to patiently claw her way back into the match and pounce on the Filipina’s unforced errors. After tying the count at 5 games apiece, Bassol Ribera closed out the match with a break and by holding serve to lift the trophy in her home country.
It was a sorry loss for the 17-year-old Eala who was gunning for her first-ever W60 pro title after previously winning events in the W15 and W25.
On her way to the finals, the Filipina teen sensation defeated an array of highly ranked players – 11th seed Daniela Seguel of Chile, seventh seed Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers of Spain, third seed Jaimee Fourlis of Australia, and 16th seed Katherine Sebov of Canada.
With her runner-up finish in Madrid, Eala went up 73 notches in the world ranking. From her previous ranking of 413th in the world, Eala is now 340th in the latest WTA rankings.
Eala will take a short break before resuming her pro campaign. She is set to see action in the W25 Open Generali Ciudad de Palma de Rio at the Polideportivo Municiapl e Pandero in Palma del Rio, Spain from beginning June 27.
