By NIKOLE JAVIER
Birthday girl Alex Eala fell short of reaching the main draw of the 2024 Roland Garros after suffering a painful 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 4-6 defeat at the hands of Julia Riera of Argentina on Thursday night, May 23.
The Filipinas tennis ace, who was hopeful as she was celebrating her 19th birthday, ran out of gas in the deciding set after back-to-back courageous victories in the past two days to march into this stage of the tournament.
The world No. 160 Eala was gunning to become the first Filipino female to barge into the main draw of one of the most prestigious major tennis tournaments.
Eala stormed her way to the second round after claiming her maiden Grand Slam match win against Ma Ye Xin of China, 6-1, 6-1, before turning back Taylah Preston of Australia, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, to progress to the third qualifying round.
It would have been a brilliant callback for Eala, who won the girls’ doubles title in the 2021 French Open with Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia.
Eala cruised past world No. 93 Riera in the opening set and was well on her way to a sweeping victory after crawling back from a 5-6 hole in the second set to lock the game at 6 which forced a tiebreak.
In the first to seven extension, Eala ended up collapsing in the tiebreak game after being in deficit for the most of it, 1-5.
Eventually, Riera managed to erase Eala’s set lead as she tied the game at one set apiece.
With a chance to turn the tides in her favor for the last time, Eala couldn’t regain her stream and trailed the rest of the way.
