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| Alex Eala fell short against Tereza Valentova again. Richard Esguerra (file photo) |
MANILA—Rising Czech tennis star Tereza Valentova still had Alex Eala's numbers as she put up a Set 2 masterclass en route to a 7-6 (6), 6-1 win in the first round of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha on Monday.
Just like in their previous meeting three months ago in Osaka, the 18-year-old Valentova, ranked 48th in the world, remains one of the hurdles the 20-year-old Eala, now at a career-high 40th place in the WTA rankings, needs to overcome.
Eala had her chances in Set 1 as she took back Valentova's early break point and was up, 4-3, but the set went back-and-forth afterward, leading to the tiebreak.
The deciding game needed another point to decide, but Valentova scored two straight points after the 6-all tie to clinch Set 1.
Valentova then dominated Set 2 and was even on track of sweeping the set after quickly racing to a 5-0 lead
Eala finally got one game back, but it was a walk in the park eventually for Valentova as she clinched Game 7.
Eala is scheduled to enter another WTA 1000 event, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, next week.
