Fresh off her historic Southeast Asian Games gold medal, Filipina tennis sensation Alex Eala faced a unique challenge on Saturday, falling in a competitive straight-sets doubles match alongside China’s Jerry Shang at the MGM Macau Tennis Masters.
The Filipino-Chinese duo yielded to the all-male pairing of Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and China’s Wu Yibing, 7-5, 7-6(1), at the Macao Forum.
The match took an unexpected turn after world No. 9 Mirra Andreeva, who was originally slated to partner with Wu, withdrew from the day’s action due to illness.
This forced the mixed pair of Eala and Shang into a “mixed-mixed” exhibition against the two ATP pros.
Despite the power disadvantage, Eala and Shang remained neck-and-neck with their opponents throughout the match.
In the opening set, the two teams traded holds until Davidovich Fokina and Wu found a late opening to secure the break and the set, 7-5.
The second set followed a similar trajectory. Eala and Shang showed great resilience, saving four match points while trailing 5-6, 40-0 to force a tiebreak.
However, the Spanish-Chinese duo dominated the decider, 7-1, to seal the victory for Team Conchita.
Earlier in the day, Davidovich Fokina also defeated Shang in their singles encounter, 7-6(3), 7-5, giving their team a 4-0 lead in the points standings.
Eala, currently ranked No. 53 in the world, is using the exhibition tournament as a final tune-up before her main-draw debut at the Australian Open in January.
The 19-year-old Filipina is scheduled to return to the court on Sunday for a highly anticipated singles rematch against Andreeva, provided the Russian star is cleared to play.
The two last met in the 2022 US Open Girls’ quarterfinals, where Eala won en route to her first junior Grand Slam title.