Alex Eala folded to Moyuka Uchijima of Japan, 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, in Round 1 of the WTA1000 Dongfeng-Voyah Wuhan Open qualifiers to absorb her first early exit in the last five stops of the WTA Tour yesterday at the Optics Valley International Tennis Center in China.
The fifth-seeded Eala, 20, who made the Top 8 of her last four tournaments, met a match in WTA No. 92 Uchijima by splitting the first two sets but was dragged to a deep 0-3 hole in the third and could not recover from there.
It was the fifth straight three-setter for Eala in the past two weeks and it showed in her meltdown after breaking away from a 3-all deadlock in the second set to force a deciding set.
Eala, WTA No. 58, could have moved a win away from the main draw that features the sport’s titans led by No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2 Iga Swiatek and No. 3 Coco Gauff.
Eala came off a quarterfinal appearance in the WTA125 Suzhou Open and WTA250 Sao Paulo Open, a semis stint in the WTA125 Jingshan Open and the breakthrough crown in the Guadalaraja Open.