(UPDATED) Filipino Alex Eala ended her W100 Vitoria-Gasteiz campaign in a semifinal defeat against No. 3 seed Jessika Ponchet of France, 6-2, 4-6, 2-6, Saturday in Spain.

In the first semis duel at Peña Vitoriana Tenis Club, WTA World No. 258 Eala claimed a 3-0 lead by forcing a forehand error from her 137th-ranked foe.

Ponchet, aged 26 with nine ITF singles titles, then got on the scoreboard by blasting an ace.

Three-time ITF singles winner Eala, 18, improved to 5-2 after saving a break point and took the first set by breaking serve after seven deuces, 6-2.

The second set saw Eala duplicate her early 3-0 edge via a backhand down-the-line winner.

• Tennis: Alex Eala achieves maiden W100 semifinal berth in Spain

Ponchet responded with a turnaround as she leveled, broke serve due to a netted forehand approach shot, and held for 5-3.

She forced a deciding set, 6-4, by hitting a forehand winner on her lone set point.

Tied at two games each, Ponchet clinched the first break in the third set before Eala called for a medical timeout.

The tournament’s only unseeded semifinalist aimed to rebound, but was unable to stop her French opponent from serving out the match with an ace, 6-2.

Eight aces and three double faults were tallied by Ponchet after almost two hours of play, while Eala served one ace and five double faults.

With the triumph, Ponchet kept her lead in their head-to-head, 3-1, and advanced to the final against Ukrainian sixth seed and World No. 155 Daria Snigur.

For Eala, the semifinal is her best W100 finish after posting second-round results in 2022 at the Shrewsbury qualifiers in Great Britain and Grodzisk Mazowiecki main draw in Poland.

She scored difficult wins in Vitoria-Gasteiz over Romanian fifth seed Jaqueline Cristian in the opening round, 7-6(5), 6-7(1), 6-2, Chinese qualifier Tianmi Mi in the second round, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-0, and Spanish Lucia Cortez Llorca in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

• Tennis: Eala upsets Romania’s Cristian at W100 Spain

She also teamed up with local bet Marina Bassols Ribera for a 6-2, 6-2 ouster of Indian second seeds Ankita Raina and Prarthana Thombare, then suffered a 5-7, 6-1, 9-11 quarters loss to Latvian Diana Marcinkevica and French Estelle Cascino.

In an interview with the $100,000 ITF tournament, Eala talked about being a teenager on the professional tour.

“Well, I like to be one of the youngest players. It means that time is on my side. There’s definitely less pressure,” she shared in a YouTube video on the Araba World Tennis Tour Vitoria-Gasteiz channel.

“But I’m not always the youngest anymore. Now, there are people who are doing really well that are even younger than me. So, I try to make age not a factor. I try not to think about that and just focus on how I play my game,” added the 2022 US Open girls’ singles champion.

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