By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Alex Eala failed to sustain her hot start and fell to lower-ranked Viktorija Golubic, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (0), in the quarterfinals of the Suzhou Tennis Open on Friday, Oct. 3 in China.
The 58th-ranked Eala, the fourth seed in the WTA 125 tournament, started strong but faltered in the second, allowing the No. 70 Swiss veteran to seize control and force a decider.
In the third set, Eala showed signs of recovery after winning three straight games to level the score at 6-all, pushing the match into a tense tiebreak.
The turnaround came in the 12th game where the sixth-seeded Golubic erased a 15-40 deficit by saving four match points on the way to breaking Eala’s serve.
Then she pressed her attack further to win the tiebreak by winning seven unanswered points to seal the win.
A victory for Eala could have arranged her a semifinal meeting with second seed German Tstjana Maria, who won by default over Kazakh Yulia Putintseva.
Prior to the tournament, Eala reached the semifinals of the Jingshan Tennis Open also in China last week.
She won her breakthrough WTA singles title at the Guadalajara Open early last month then finished in the quarterfinals of the Sao Paulo Open in Brazil.
