Filipina tennis star Alex Eala bowed out of contention at the Jingshan Open after a loss to New Zealand’s Lulu Sun in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon, September 27.

The 24-year-old Sun overcame a loss in the opening set to eliminate Eala, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, and advance to the finals of the WTA125 competition.

There, Sun will be up against home bet Ma Yexin, who ousted Australia’s Talia Gibson, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, in their own semifinal match.

It was a tough result for the top-seeded Eala, who failed to build on her win in the opening set and fell behind, 0-4, in the deciding frame.

Eala had gotten off to a strong start, capitalizing on Sun’s double faults to take a 4-2 lead in the opener.

She won another deuce game for a 5-2 lead and eventually closed the set on her third set point, 6-3.

But she squandered a 2-0 advantage in the second set as Sun, seeded third in the tournament, found her rhythm and strung together steady baseline rallies to level the match.

At 4-4, Eala came within two games of reaching the final, but Sun saved three break points and held her serve for a 5-4 lead, before breaking Eala in the next game to equalize.

Sun then dominated the third set to end Eala’s hopes of another WTA125 title.

She now holds a 2-0 head-to-head edge over the Filipina, having also beaten her in the qualifying stage of Wimbledon last year, 7-6, 7-5. (ABS-CBN News)