MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala remained satisfied with her performance despite failing to advance to the second round of the singles event at the French Open in Paris, France.
Eala suffered a 4-6, 2-6 defeat at the hands of No. 17 seed Iva Jovic, resulting in an early exit from the singles competition.
Despite the loss, Eala viewed the match as a valuable learning experience.
“I think it was a good match, pretty good level. I think there are a lot of takeaways that I can get from this match. Good experience and I think it sends a message to keep on working and keep on building,” said Eala.
While disappointed about not reaching the second round, Eala expressed happiness for Jovic, who is one of her close friends on the WTA Tour.
“Iva is such a good friend of mine. The difficulty comes in just kind of knowing that not both of us are going to advance. As friends, you all want to advance together,” she added.
Eala acknowledged that facing friends in tournaments is nothing new in the WTA circuit. She previously competed against her friend Zeynep Sonmezof Turkey in the Round of 32 of the Abu Dhabi Open last February in the United Arab Emirates.
“But in terms of competing against each other as competitors, I think we’re very accustomed to. We’re all professionals so everything is prepared in the same way that you would any other Slam,” Eala explained.
Eala also praised Jovic’s strong performance, highlighted by three aces, a 70 percent first-serve success rate, and converting 6 of 9 break points.
“The difficulty with facing Iva comes from her being a great tennis player and a really good competitor instead of being my friend,” she said.
Eala’s campaign is not over yet, as she is set to compete in the doubles event alongside Canada’s Victoria Mboko on Wednesday evening. TMT
