By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Alex Eala just tasted her first-ever first-round professional tournament exit of the year during the International Tennis Federation (ITF) W15 Manacor tournament.
Eala was unable to repeat her dominant performance against Simona Waltert of Switzerland who had other plans and equalized her series against Eala, 1-1, in three sets, 4-6, 6-2, 5-7.
Eala previously dismantled Waltert during ITF W15’s past leg, crushing her in just two sets, 6-1, 6-4.
However, the 20-year-old Swiss prepared for their rematch and did major adjustments against the Filipina tennis sensation.
In their first meeting last month, Eala had an easy time building up her momentum after displaying a brilliant baseline game that kept Waltert guessing.
Yesterday, it was a different story. Eala wasn’t able to capitalize on her groundstrokes due to Waltert’s aggressive pressure in attacking the net.
Waltert did the same exact strategy for three straight sets which Eala could not counter as the Swiss just dominated her way on the net every time.
Eala and her Rafael Nadal tennis academy camp will again go back to the drawing board and figure things out as Eala is bound to join the upcoming series of the ITF pro tournament.
