Alex Eala and Nadiia Kichenok’s winning run came to an end as they absorbed a 7-6(4), 3-6, 5-10 semifinal loss to Janice Tjen and Katarzyna Piter in the Guangzhou Open in China Saturday, Oct. 25.
After taking the first set, Eala and Kichenok failed to sustain the momentum in the second frame and faded as they tried but found no answer to the power game of their rivals.
The Indonesian-Polish duo then raced a 5-2 lead before wrapping it up.
It was almost the same story in the deciding frame as the 20-year-old Eala and her Ukrainian partner struggled.
It was a hearbreaker for Eala as she previously yielded to Tjen, 6-4, 6-1, in the quarterfinal round of the Sao Paulo Open in Brazil last month.
Tjen and Piter now arranged a title duel against Hong Kong’s Eudice Chong and Taipei’s Liang En-Shou.
Chong and Liang booked their final ticket after a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Dutch Isabelle Haverlag and British Maia Lumsdem.
Eala and Kichenok, before their elimination, collected the scalps of China’s Tang Qianhui and Britain’s Emily Appleton, 6-4, 6-2, in Round of 16 as well as Russia’s Polina Kudermetova and Kamilla Rakhimova, 6-3, 7-5, in the quarters.
Those wins halted the WTA No. 53 Eala’s string of early exits with the most recent in Guangzhou Open singles event where she bowed to world No. 305 American Claire Lu, 6-2, 4-6, 4-6.
