Filipina tennis ace Alex Eala suffered an early exit from the Japan Women’s Open after getting dominated by Tereza Valentova, 1-6, 2-6, in the tourney’s first round Tuesday in Osaka.
World No. 78 Valentova, who defeated Alina Charaeva in the qualifiers to punch a ticket to the main draw, needed just an hour and 27 minutes to grab the victory against Eala, who is ranked 54th in the world.
The pride of Czechia started off the match with four straight games, before Eala finally put herself on the board, 4-1.
Valentova, though, secured the next two games to grab a 1-0 lead.
It was more of the same in the second set, as Valentova went up 3-0 before the Rafa Nadal Academy graduate won the fourth game to inch closer.
But the Czechian was too dominant as she moved to within a game from the next round, 5-1.
Eala kept herself alive as she broke her opponent’s serve, 2-5 and she tried to mount a comeback.
But Valentova would not be denied.
This is the second straight early exit for Eala. After a string of deep runs in her previous tournaments, the Filipina exited the qualifying round of the Wuhan Open earlier in the month.