MANILA, Philippines — Filipino tennis ace Alex Eala blew sizeable leads and bowed to Latvian Jelena Ostapenko at the WTA 500 Linz Open round of 16, 4-6, 5-7, at the Design Linz Center in Austria Wednesday evening.
World No. 46 Eala seized a 4-2 lead and a 5-1 advantage in the first and second sets, respectively, but couldn't capitalize as No. 23 and former French Open titlist Ostapenko stormed back in both frames to dispatch the Filipino.
The final game of the match epitomized Eala's performance as she held a 40-30 game advantage only for Ostapenko to unleash three straight points to prevent a tiebreaker.
Ostapenko takes on Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the quarterfinals, while Eala heads to the second stop of her clay season campaign at the Stuttgart Open in Germany set from April 13 to 19.