Alex Eala’s US Open ended in the third round on Saturday night in New York, beaten by American teenager Iva Jovic 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 in a match that ran the full distance.
Eala lost the opening set 7-5, levelled it by taking the second 6-3, and was broken late in the decider to go out 7-5. Jovic advances to the fourth round, where she meets Coco Gauff.
How it went
The scoreline is the story: two of the three sets were decided by a single break, and Eala was never more than a game or two adrift. She held serve through the middle of the match and took the second set cleanly, forcing a decider on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
It is the closest kind of loss — competitive from the first game to the last, and settled at the very end.
A note on what you may have read
Articles circulating this week reporting that Eala “stunned” Jovic in straight sets refer to a different match. Jovic and Eala met in the Stars of the Open exhibition on 27-28 August, which is not a tour-level result and does not affect the US Open draw. Saturday’s third-round match is the competitive meeting, and Jovic won it.
Sources
Result verified against two independent sources: the ESPN match feed, which lists the match as final at 5-7, 6-3, 5-7 from Eala’s side, and ABS-CBN Sports, which reports Jovic winning 7-5, 3-6, 7-5. The two scorelines are the same match read from opposite sides of the net.
