ALEX Eala’s grass court miseries continued late Tuesday night (Tuesday afternoon in England) as the Filipina No. 3 seed dropped a heartbreaking 5-7, 7-5 (7-5), 6-1 decision to unheralded Linda Fruhvirtová of the Czech Republic in the first round of the Lexus Birmingham Open in England.
After bouncing back from a first-set loss with a gritty stand in the second to level the match at 1-all, Eala, ranked No. 73 in the Women’s Tennis Association ratings, suffered a meltdown in the deciding set to her rival ranked 79 rungs below her.
Fired up by the prospects of knocking out a player in the WTA top 100, Fruhvirtová broke the Filipina netter in the fourth and sixth games en route to completing the upset in two hours and 53 minutes in the bustling city located 206.8 kilometers northwest of the English capital of London.
The Czech giant-killer banked largely on 10 aces against four for the pretty Pinay southpaw, who committed seven double faults to her foe’s five and converted just four-of-11 break points in contrast to seven-of-18 by her opponent.
Just before the setback, Eala’s comments in an interview with the website tennis365.com seemed to be prescient.
“Do I feel like I am close to being a top ten player at this moment? I would say no,” admitted Eala in the report posted on the tennis website yesterday.
“My level is there and I show that at times, but there are certain reasons why these players are top 10 and I’m not there yet,” she added. “That’s not to say I don’t have the potential to be there one day, but at the moment, I still have a lot more to work on in my game.
“It is a little bit of everything I need to improve on. Mentally, technically. You look at a top 10 player and they have so many matches each year.”
Eala also disclosed her mindset against top guns like Polish four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek.
“Of course, there are going to be moments when you feel under pressure because these top players can play so well, but everyone has their own flaw,” said the netter, who stunned Swiatek 6-2, 7-5 in the women’s singles quarterfinals of the Miami Open last March.
