By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Luck was not on Alex Eala’s side after losing her first round singles and doubles matches at the W60 Chiasso International Tennis Tournament Wednesday, April 12, in Switzerland.
The 17-year-old Eala was beaten black and blue by Romanian Alexandra Ignatik, 6-0, 6-2, after she and her Czech partner, Barbora Palicova yielded to Indonesia’s Beatrice Gumulya and Czech Republic’s Anna Siskova in a hard-fought match, 6-3, 4-6, 13-11.
“(We) played a very tight doubles match today. We had our chances but (it) was not our day,” Eala said in a social media post.
It was Eala’s first tournament in a month after seeing action in the prestigious Miami Open in Florida where she earned a main draw wildcard berth but also lost her first-round match.
Eala has been trying to duplicate her previous successes in the pro scene where she clinched her first pro title in 2021 in Manacor, Spain and followed it up in 2022 in Chiang Rai, Thailand.
But she has been unsuccessful so far in her last six tournaments, where her best performance was a second-round appearance at the W60 Trnava in Slovakia early last month.
