By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Alex Eala couldn’t find an antidote and succumbed to Magda Linette, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round of the Lexus Nottingham Open in Great Britain on Tuesday, June 17.
Eala, who went through two qualifying matches to make it to the main draw, waxed hot early but failed to sustain her charge against her sixth-seeded Polish opponent.
A triumph for Eala could have set her up a second-round date with the winner between local bet Mingge Xu and American Katie Volynets, who are playing as of this writing.
Eala also lost to Linetteat the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open in February last year.
For a moment, Eala appeared in controlafter seizing a 3-0 lead but Linette, who is older by 13 years, leaned on her hard serves to claim the next five games to grab the 5-3 upperhand.
Eala briefly held serve to cut her deficit to 4-5, but Linette picked up her game quickly and broke the Filipina’s serve to win the first set.
Both Eala and Linette held their serves early in the second frame until the Filipina dropped her serve in the fifth game to trail 2-3.
This allowed Linette to set the pace as she went on to claim the next two games for 5-2, before Eala showed signs of life by breaking back the Polish’s serve in the eighth game.
However, it proved to be Eala’s last stand as Linette overcame a marathon ninth game to win the match after one hour and 39 minutes.
Overall, Eala only broke Linette’s serve twice while dropping hers five times.
Linette also fired six aces despite making the same amount of double faults.
