IVA Jovic remains an unsolvable puzzle for Alex Eala.
For the third time in as many matches, the Filipino tennis ace bowed to the American as she lost steam in their US Open third-round encounter, 5-7, 6-3, 5-7, at the jampacked Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York Sunday morning in Manila.
Falling short in a close first set, Eala forced a decider and took control of the third frame to take a 4-2 lead, but Jovic found another gear to win three games in a row for a 5-4 advantage.
World No. 18 Eala held serve to extend the match but No. 14 Jovic likewise held serve then broke Eala to finish the highly competitive match between two close friends in 3 hours and 3 minutes.
Eala's return that didn't cross over the net sealed the victory for Jovic, who denied the Filipino of becoming the first Southeast Asian to reach the US Open fourth round since Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn in 2003.
Jovic faces fellow American and world No. 4 Coco Gauff in the fourth round (round of 16).
Gauff defeated Spanish Cristina Bucsa, 6-3, 6-4, in their third-round encounter.
Eala narrowly fell to Jovic in service points won, 49 percent (53-of-109) against the latter's 53 percent (56-of-105).
The return points won department was also close with Eala logging 47 percent (49-of-105) and Jovic 51 percent (56-of-109).
Unforced errors hurt Eala who incurred 33 against Jovic who had 27.
Eala defeated world No. 122 and American qualifier Mary Stoiana in the first round, 6-1, 6-2.
The lefty netter then topped world No. 46 Oleksandra Oliynykova in the second round, 6-1, 6-4, before yielding to Jovic.
Eala exited the tournament with a big paycheck, though, as she bagged a total of $310,000 or P19.4 million.
Eala seized $290,000 for her singles third round appearance and a share of $20,000 for her mixed doubles first round appearance with Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Eala will next compete at the WTA 500 Singapore Tennis Open slated from Sept. 21-27.
There will be another 500-tier tournament, the Guadalajara Open in Mexico before Singapore but Eala hasn't confirmed participation for that tournament slated from Sept. 13-19 as of writing.
