Maya Joint’s adventures in Wimbledon wonderland have gone up in smoke as she failed to follow up successfully on her sensational triumph over Serena Williams.
The 20-year-old former Australian number one took to court three with high hopes of building on her monumental first-round victory over returning seven-time champ Williams.
But faced by another big crowd again screaming largely for her opponent, Joint this time saw another brilliant start slip tamely away as Alexandra Eala of the Philippines roared back to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
The US-born Queenslander had grabbed headlines around the world for her defeat of 44-year-old Williams on Centre Court, eventually outlasting the legend who ended up struggling with the pace and physicality of the match.
But 21-year-old Eala, defeated by Joint in an epic final on the Eastbourne grass last year, proved a different proposition, as she only got more dominant in the latter stages of her revenge mission, reeling off the final nine games to prevail in three minutes under two hours.
Joint, who had begun in the same exhilarating manner in which she had finished against Williams, seemed to have the match on her racquet, striking 37 winners in all with her initially crisp ball-striking.
But it all started to unravel in the second set as the mistakes began to flow from the Australian, who ended up making 41 unforced errors.
With each one, the volume from the legion of Filipino fans who follow their young star everywhere began to crank up.
“I really had to dig deep after Maya came out on fire, she came out ready,” Eala said as she addressed the cheering crowd.
“She is coming off an amazing win against Serena. She played really well and handled herself really well in that situation, so congratulations to Maya.”
Meanwhile, Queenslander Kim Birrell couldn’t cope with the veteran Romanian Sorana Cirstea in their evening clash, losing 6-3, 6-4 in 71 minutes, leaving Daria Kasatkina as the only Australian remaining in the women’s draw as she prepares to face Naomi Osaka.
