Filipina tennis ace Alex Eala and Indonesian partner Janice Tjen bowed out of the women’s doubles competition at the Abu Dhabi Open after a straight-sets loss to Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Great Britain’s Olivia Nicholls, 6-4, 6-2, in the semifinals on Friday.
The match lasted one hour and 16 minutes, with Eala and Tjen putting up a fight early before their opponents took control. The first set stayed close until 5-4, but Mihalikova and Nicholls sealed it.
In the second set, the Southeast Asian pair fell behind early and could not recover despite a brief rally.
Eala had earlier exited the singles draw following a quarterfinal defeat to Ekaterina Alexandrova.
She is set to compete next at the Qatar Open in Doha, which begins on Sunday.
The Abu Dhabi Open capped a busy start to the year for Eala, who reached the semifinals of the ASB Classic, won the Kooyong Classic exhibition, made an early exit at the Australian Open, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Philippine Women’s Open.