By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Alex Eala found Chinese Wei Sijia too strong and absorbed a stinging 7-5, 6-2 loss in the semifinals of the Workday Canberra International in Australia on Friday, Jan. 3.
As expected the opening set was tight and exciting with both players trading powerful strokes and booming serves much to the delight of the crowd until the 21-year-old Chinese pressed her attack in the 11th and 12th games.
Eala, 19, did try her very best to parry Wei’s whistling shots but failed – her returns sometimes going astray to her chagrin.
She looked dispirited after that as Wei, ranked No. 134, raced to a commanding 5-0 lead in the second frame.
But the 147th-ranked Eala appeared to have found her second wind when she broke Wei’s serve in the 6th before holding her own in the next game to close in an at 2-5.
But it proved to be Eala’s last hurrah as Wei fired rockets again in the 8th game to finally seal the deal after one hour and 28 minutes.
A victory for Eala could have arranged her championship date with seventh seed Aoi Ito of Japan, who stunned top seed Nuria Parrizas Diaz of Spain, 6-2, 6-2.
Prior to her loss to Wei, Eala had to undergo two qualifying matches against Aussies Catherine Aulia, 6-1, 6-2, and Alana Subasic, 5-7, 6-0, 6-1, to make it to the main draw, then dumped Austria’s Sinja Kraus, 6-2, 6-4; Netherlands’ Arianne Hortono, 6-3, 6-3; and local bet Taylah Preston, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
This was Eala’s first tournament for the season.
