EALA BOWS OUT OF ABU DHABI OPEN SINGLES TOURNEY

MANILA, Philippines — It’s the end of the road for Alex Eala in the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open’s singles action.

Eala suffered a drubbing at the hands of World No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova, 3-6, 3-6, in the quarterfinal round of the WTA 500 event Thursday evening. 

Eala had a sluggish start and could not recover, going down 0-2 in the first set as she played catchup. 

But she could not do so, as the 31-year-old just had answer after answer.

 

The Filipina fell behind in the second set, 1-3, before she tried to claw back into it, winning the next two games to tie things up, 3-all. 

Alexandrova, however, broke the World No. 45’s serve to go up anew, 4-3. 

The Russian then held her own serve to go up, 5-3, as frustrations mounted for the Filipina. 

In the ninth game, the 20-year-old went out strong, but the veteran Alexandrova would not be denied. 

“She was fighting until the end. I knew it was gonna be difficult but the atmosphere was amazing today,” Alexandrova said after the match. 

“The crowd, I know, was cheering for her, but the atmosphere was great. I enjoyed my time on the court. I tried to do my best and I’m happy I was able to finish it in two sets because it was really difficult in the end.”

While Eala had fewer unforced errors, 27 to 30, Aleandrova punched in 33 winners to her opponent’s 15. 

The victor will take on either Liudmila Samsonova or Hailey Baptiste in the semifinals.

Eala will still play in the doubles’ action, as she teams up with Indonesia’s Janice Tjen. 

The duo will take on Zhang Shuai and Cristina Bucsa also on Thursday evening. 

After the Abu Dhabi Open, the Filipina will play in Doha for the Qatar Totalenergies Open, which is headlined by Iga Swiatek.

2026-02-05T15:31:24Z