Alex Eala’s upset bid against fourth seed Chloe Paquet fell short, absorbing a 6-4, 5-7, 3-6 defeat in the Round of 16 of the W60 Grenoble tournament in France on Thursday.
The 16-year-old Eala started well by taking the opening set, but the Frenchwoman used her guile to outlast the young Filipina netter in two hours and 34 minutes of exciting duel.
While Paquet, 27, is at No. 124 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, Eala, who went through two qualifying matches before advancing to the main draw, is rated way below at 587.
Paquet looked doomed after falling behind 5-3 in the second set as Eala peppered her with variety of powerful shots.
Suddenly, Eala misfired in the next game which proved enough for Paquet to recover, coming through with delicate shots to win the next four games and draw level at 1-1.
The Frenchwoman then unnerved Eala by breaking her serve in the first game of the deciding set.
