Despite doing everything she could, Filipina tennis sensation Alexandra ‘Alex’ Eala lost steam at Wimbledon, bowing to world’s No. 3 Jasmine Paolini of Italy, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, in their match up at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London.
As a huge crowd cheered the 21-year-old Quezon City lass, her Italian opponent came out strong, racing to a 4-1 lead in the opening set. But Eala responded quickly by winning three of the next four games to cut the deficit to 5-4 to hang on.
However, Paolini was similarly motivated and came back to hold serve and consequently close out the set, 6-4.
In the second set, the country’s pride bounced back even as she trailed 3-2 but then reeled off three consecutive games to seize a 5-3 advantage.
Although Paolini held serve to stay alive, Eala went on strongly this time to serve out the set and force a deciding third set.
The decider remained tightly contested, with both players locked at 3-3 before Paolini’s experience finally showed. The Italian won three of the final four games to seal the victory and book her place in the quarterfinals.
After her hard-fought loss, Eala reacted positively to an interview on the sidelines: “Yeah, it was a really challenging match today. I think Jasmine played great. I gave everything that I could. I did everything that I could do today, so I’m proud of that. I have to be proud of what I’ve achieved this week. Leaving with positive thoughts, yeah.”
“There are so many positives. Well, one I think is how I’ve handled pressure. I mean, there’s pressure every week, right? Of course, the more you want to win, I think the more kind of like pressure goes along with that. I’m happy with how I faced it head on. I think I kept cool when I needed to control my emotions. Overall, performed the best that I could on the day,” she added.
Asked about her astonishing victory over defending champion Iga Swiatek, she responded: “Yes, of course there are things that I would have liked to do differently. But in the end, I think that’s just tennis. That’s also what’s beautiful about tennis, is that every match, it’s different in a sense. You’re always finding solutions, the opponent is always finding ways to make you uncomfortable. I think Jasmine did that pretty well today. She really went for her shots. She definitely made me feel uncomfortable in certain moments of the match.”
Finally, Eala enthused that the past week in general had added much to her confidence: “I mean, if this week doesn’t . . . It’s been one of my best results, right? Of course, it will add confidence. I think it’s important that every match I played this week, and every match that I play, I go in with the self-esteem and the thought that I’m able to win. I don’t think that necessarily because of one week or the other that that will change, yeah.”