MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala and her doubles partner, Nikola Bartunkova, bowed out of the Birmingham Open doubles competition after losing to second-seeded British pair Harriet Dart and Maia Lumsden, 6-4, 2-6, 11-9, in the round of 16 on Monday in Birmingham, England.
Eala and Bartunkova started strongly, racing to a 4-0 lead in the opening set before Dart and Lumsden recovered to win six of the next seven games and take the set.
The Filipino-Czech tandem responded in the second set, building a 5-2 advantage and eventually leveling the match to force a deciding match tiebreak.
In the 10-point tiebreak, Eala and Bartunkova held a 9-8 lead but Dart and Lumsden won the final three points to secure the victory and advance to the quarterfinals.
The doubles loss marked Eala’s first grass-court defeat of the season.
Eala will return to action in singles on Tuesday, where she is set to face Australia’s Priscilla Hon in the opening round of the tournament. The 21-year-old Filipina enters the event as the top seed and currently holds a 1-1 record against Hon in their previous meetings.
