MANILA, Philippines -- It may be the case of fatigue kicking in, the law of averages catching up, a slump getting in the way, or a combination of the three.
Whatever the reason, Filipino tennis ace Alex Eala found herself on the wrong end of an upset loss for the third straight time.
World No. 19 Eala fell to Chinese qualifier and No. 217 Shi Han, 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, to make a first round exit at the WTA 1000 Wuhan Open in China Monday night, October 12.
Eala held off Shi in the first set and even took a 3-2 lead in the second.
Shi went on a rampage from there, winning seven straight games to take control for the rest of the way and handing Eala her worst loss of the season.
The defeat is the latest in Eala's shock losses to lower-ranked players.
Eala first fell to world No. 180 Tatiana Prozorova at the Singapore Open round of 16, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6 on September 24.
A week later at the 20th Asian Games in Japan where she's favored to win the gold medal, Eala settled for bronze after yielding to world No. 85 Wang Xiyu in the semifinals, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, on October 1.
The string of upset losses is an uncharted territory for Eala, who used to be the one pulling off stunning wins against higher-ranked players.
Eala even holds a 9-5 win-loss card against top 10 players.
The last three weeks showed Eala as a shadow of her old self -- far from the player who made a stunning semifinal finish at the Miami Open last year, a historic Wimbledon fourth round campaign last July, and a conquest of the DC Open last August for her first Tour title.
Shi was easily playing the best tennis of her career on Monday night, and it didn't help Eala that she gave up 37 unforced errors including six double faults.
Eala thus also denied herself from unleashing those winners which she had 20 against Shi's 30.
At press time on Tuesday afternoon, Eala was looking to extend her Wuhan campaign in the doubles side with Zeynep Sönmez.
The Filipino-Turkish duo was set to face the Ukrainian tandem of Dayana Yastremska and Anhelina Kalinina in the first round.
