Struggling Eala bows to lower-ranked foe in Wuhan Open

Sports

ALEX Eala suffered an early exit in the WTA 1000 Wuhan Open, losing to Chinese qualifier Han Shi, 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, on Monday night, Oct. 12.

The 21-year-old Eala, the tournament’s 13th seed, started strong but lost steam in the end to endure the shock loss.

Eala was favored against the World No. 217 Han but the Filipina tennis star committed 37 unforced errors, including six double faults.

After dominating the first set, the World No. 19 Eala grabbed a 3-2 lead in the second set but Han won the next three games to force a deciding third set.

Han then won the first three games in the final set before Eala made it 1-3. Eala couldn’t complete a comeback as Han did enough to seal the upset win.

Han, thus, arranged a second-round duel with Leylah Fernandez, who won his opening round assignment against Ekaterina Alexandrova, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

For Eala, it was her loss in the last three weeks against lower-ranked opponents. She lost to World No. 180 Tatiana Prozorova at the round of 16 of the Singapore Open and to World No. 85 Wang Xiyu at the semifinal round of the Asian Games.(CCM)