By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
After a historic championship run during leg 1 of the W15 Manacor ITF professional tournament, Filipina ace Alex Eala wasn’t able to hold off the surging Ylena In-Albon of Switzerland in the quarterfinals of leg 2, 0-6, 3-6.
It was the first time since the first leg that Eala was not able to register a score in a set. The Filipina received a reality check after getting outplayed in both the baseline and the net game in the first set as the Swiss In-Albon continued to fire powerful shots and made everything difficult for her.
Eala tried to adjust her game after getting into the net more than staying at the baseline but the ranked 432-player in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) just broke through the set and reigned supreme.
Things went favorable to the 15-year-old Filipina leftie after she started to score in the set but was limited to only three.
In-Albon then provided the exclamation point to sweep Eala after maintaining her insane ground stroke game throughout the second set.
Despite the loss, Eala will still have a chance to recover as she is set to join the third leg of the W15 Manacor tournament this coming February 1 to 7.