WORLD No. 13 Diana Shnaider remained a riddle that Alex Eala just couldn't solve, battling back from a set down to win their Toray Pan Pacific Open quarterfinal, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, on Friday in Tokyo.
The eighth-seeded Eala could not sustain her hot start, losing steam in an exhausting two-hour and 52-minute match as she lost to the same player that ended her run at the Ningbo Open in China at the round-of-16 stage just weeks ago.
Eala still took home USD33,475 for making the quarters and earned 108 points to stay at No. 18 in the world, but her record in the WTA's Asian swing after a historic run to the US Open Round of 16 leaves much to be desired.
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On the other hand, the third-seeded Shnaider now heads to the semifinals of the WTA 500 tournament against Mia Pohankova of Slovakia. The world's No. 144 ranked player took down world No. 65 Alicia Parks, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
Eala, meanwhile, now moves to the WTA250 Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open which starts on Monday to wrap up her Asian swing.
Eala looked exceptional in the first set, winning 71 percent of the points off her first serves. But turned the match around in a marathon second set, specifically in the ninth game where she saved four break points to grab a crucial 5-4 lead.
That only kept the confidence up for the Russian who kept the pressure on the Filipina in the decider, where she broke in the seventh game on the way to the come-from-behind victory.
It didn't help that Eala's cause that she committed seven double faults and seven unforced errors.
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