ALEX Eala came into her first-round match with an aura about her, not of invincibility, but of respect. She had taken the women’s tennis world by surprise with her amazing run at the Miami Open just weeks ago, leading many to believe that she might pull the same surprise at the Italian Open in Rome.
That did not happen. Not only did she lose, she lost badly.
In a match that lasted just a few minutes past one hour and played before dawn on Thursday [Manila time], Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine gave the Filipino phenom one of the most brutal defeats of her young career, a 6-0, 6-1 shellacking, that is not easy to recover from.
READ Eala falls to dominant Marta Kostyuk in Italian Open
Kostyuk, 22, tossed Eala, 19, seemingly at will, driving balls to the edges as Eala scampered to retrieve them and missing them completely. During times when she managed to get to the ball, she smashed them into the net or outside the lines.
Eala tried everything in her arsenal to stem the tide, hitting as hard as she could, serving and volleying, but in many instances, her hits were not where she wanted them to be.
She could have hurled the net posts at Kostyuk, but she still would have missed. That is what the record says anyway: the Filipina had 23 unforced errors and only 3 winners against the Ukrainian’s 12 and 19.
Eala lost the first 10 games before finally getting on board on the 11th and after trailing 4-0 in the second set. The lean crowd, eager for her to come back swinging, gave her a warm applause. But the 11th — the only game she won — turned out to be her one highlight. She was broken six times and never had a break point against her rival.
Then Kostyuk, who had nearly twice as many points won, 59 against Eala’s 30, ended the Filipina’s misery by taking the next two games, with Eala ending the match by sending her forehand wide.
The loss was not totally unexpected. Kostyuk is ranked No. 27; Eala is No. 70. Kostyuk is statistically more accomplished, reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2024, and once achieving the ranking of 16th in the world.
She also came prepared for Eala, who had lost the surprise element after the Filipino ace grabbed the spotlight following that magical run at the Miami Open where she ran roughshod over a slew of major champions, including Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys, and World No. 2 Iga Swiatek.
Against Kostyuk, Eala could conjure none of the magic and went away only with the realization that more work needs doing to keep in step with the best in the world.
Kostyuk, smiling, said a few words to Eala as they walked to the umpire’s chair for the customary handshakes and tapped her back as if to say, “it’s all right, tennis is that way, you win some, lose some.”
Eala herself seems to have little time for second-guessing or frustration. On the way out of the main stadium, where only a handful of seats were taken because of the lateness of the match, she gracefully signed autographs and posed for selfies, head high, smiling broadly, looking like a winner.
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