Tournament top seed Alex Eala couldn’t sustain a strong start, falling to defending champion Rebecca Marino in their thrilling intense Ilkley Open quarterfinal showdown
So close, yet so far — Alex Eala’s promising run at the Ilkley Open came to a halt just shy of the semifinals.
Eala fizzled out after an emphatic start, absorbing a 6-1, 0-6, 6-7(4-7) loss to defending champion Rebecca Marino in their thrilling quarterfinal duel on Friday (PH time), June 13.
Trailing 5-4, 40-0 in the third set, the world no. 77 saved four match points in that game to even things up.
Moments later, Eala dragged Marino to a winner-take-all tiebreak after breaking back in the 12th game. Down 6-2, she saved two match points anew, but the veteran Canadian showed her poise and completed the comeback with a timely ace.
The 20-year-old lost her rhythm in the second set as Marino broke her serve three times and handed her a bagel to level the match at one set apiece — marking the first set the Filipina dropped in the tournament.
Earlier, Eala put up a 25-minute tennis clinic in the opening salvo, winning 25 of the match’s first 37 points, never facing a break point, and converting 80% of her first-serve points.
Marino now awaits the winner of the other quarterfinal showdown between Great Britain’s Armani Banks or Celine Naef of Switzerland.