By MARK REY MONTEJO
The excitement for the much-awaited reunion between Alex Eala and Venus Williams was short-lived as the duo suffered a 4-6, 3-6 loss to Miyu Kato and Liudmila Samsonova in the opening round of the doubles event in the WTA 1000 National Bank Open in Toronto, Canada, Friday, Aug. 7 (Philippine time).
Buoyed by her smashing debut in singles, the 21-year-old Eala dug deep as she and the former world No. 1 erased a 2-4 deficit and level the opening set at 4-4, drawing cheers from the packed crowd at Sobeys Stadium.
However, the Japanese-Russian pair regrouped and won the next two games to secure the upper hand.
There was no turning back from there on for Kato and Samsonova as they raced to a commanding 4-0, enough to disarm Williams and Eala.
Kato and Samsonova now battle either No. 3 seed Sara Errani and Nicole Melichar-Martinez or the tandem of Americans Jessica Pegula and McCartney Kessler in the Last 16.
Their first partnership took place in the Bad Homburg Open in Germany, where Eala and Williams had a winning debut against Alexandra Osborne and Catherine Harrison, 6-3, 6-4, before yielding to Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia and Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain, 3-6, 2-6, in the second round.
Eala and Williams were supposed to play together in WTA 500 D.C. Open doubles, but the Filipina ace withdrew at the last minute to concentrate in singles event.
It was a wonderful as Eala won the singles title, becoming the first Filipino player to win a WTA title in the Open era.
