By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Filipina lawn tennis superstar Alex Eala ended her International Tennis Federation (ITF) Slovakia 02A tournament with a semifinal finish after falling at the hands of United Kingdom’s Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls last March 10, 2023, held in TC Empire in Trnava, Slovakia.
The 17-year-old sensation teamed up with Lithuania’s Justina Mikulskyte and lost in straight sets against UK’s duo, 6-3, 6-3.
Despite finding her groove midway through the first set, Barnett and Nicholls’ game plan of locking the net area down became their biggest problem until the second set.
Eala and her Lithuanian partner tried to play the lob game at the start of the second set but the UK duo was still consistent with their attacks and were wise to put more pressure in the close range.
After taking their first game point in the second set, Eala tried to counter by deploying down-the-line forehand bombs to disrupt team UK’s groove.
The move proved to be effective but once Barnett got his hands in her service possessions, Eala and Mikulskyte could only watch Nicholls finish their loose return in the net.
Unfortunate errors then started to plague them when they were rallying from behind in the last three sets which made it harder for them to come back into the game.
It was still a positive campaign for Eala after reaching the Top 4 stage, earlier taking down the pair of Vivian Heisen and Julia Lohoff in the quarterfinals to set up a clash with the UK tandem.
During the Round of 16, Eala and Mikulskyte bested Nina Vargova and Ela Platenikova via a sweep, 6-1, 6-0.
Eala will go back to the drawing board and resume her training camp before joining the other ITF professional circuits midway March until December.
