Preston fails to advance to semis at the Workday Canberra International

Qualifier Alexandra Eala, the world no. 147 from the Philippines has ended world no. 170 Taylah Preston’s run at the Workday Canberra International.

Preston started well and took the first set before too many errors from the Australian saw Eala take the match 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Just yesterday it was the reverse for Preston after coming from a set down against Canada’s Marina Stakusic in an almost similar scoreline to the match against Eala.

Preston broke her opponent in the opening game of the match after hitting an inside out forehand service return winner.

Preston saved a break point in the next game before holding to consolidate the early break.

Both players then held serve to love to see Eala serving at 1-3. Eala again held to love in a display of powerful and accurate hitting.

Games went with serve before Preston stepped up to serve for the set at 5-4. The Australian held to love to take the first set.

Preston had the best possible start to the second set when she again broke in the first game to lead 1-0.

In the next game Preston was up 40-15 and she had a forehand that was near the service line. She over hit the shot to send it long, this let Eala back into the game and the Filipino would break back after back-to-back unforced errors from Preston.

Preston had two break points in the next game with Eala serving at 15-40 and the Australian converted when her opponent hit long.

Unforced errors and a winner from Eala saw the Filipino world no. 147 again break back.

From that moment it was all Eala with Preston just winning one more game which came in the third set. Preston did however have a break point in the opening game of the third set, it was saved with an Ace from Eala.

Another opportunity came and went for the Australian after Eala hit a winner to save that break point. Eala saved four from four break point opportunities in that set while breaking her opponent twice.

In other quarterfinal matches the defending champion and no. 1 seed Nuria Parrizas Diaz defeated qualifier Oksana Selekjmeteva 6-3, 6-3.

Japan’s no. 7 seed Aoi Ito defeated Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic 6-2, 7-6(6).

China’s Wei Sijia was too good for another qualifier Simona Waltert from Switzerland, taking the match 6-1, 6-4.

Semifinals

(1) Nuria Parrizas Diaz (ESP) v (7) Aoi Ito (JPN)
Wei Sijia v (Q) Alexandra Eala (PHI)