After Eastbourne history, Eala focuses on defending Wimbledon champ
Alex Eala will ride into Wimbledon with a little bit of momentum on her side as far as world rankings is concerned.
The Filipino ace is expected to be well in the 50s by the time the Grand Slam on grass rolls around after her performance in the Eastbourne Open, where she became the first Filipino to reach a WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) final.
Eala’s live ranking at press time is 56, a huge jump from the world No. 74 she carried into the Eastbourne tournament.
“I’m super happy because that was a tough match and there were some really tough moments,” an emotional Eala, who is based in Mallorca and trains at the Rafa Nadal Academy, said on court after her 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 victory over fellow qualifier Varvara Gracheva of France.
“It was tough physically and mentally because she is a tough player and also came from qualifying.”
The 20-year-old ace will open her Wimbledon stint against defending champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic.
After a run to the semifinals in the 2025 Miami Open, Eala guaranteed herself of main draw tickets to the Grand Slam. She made her debut in the main draw of the French Open recently, but lost in the first round to Emiliana Arango in three sets.
Just days before her Wimbledon debut against world No.17 Krejcikova, Eala was battling Australia’s Maya Joint late Saturday evening in the Eastbourne Open final.
Left-hander Eala, ranked 74th in the world, edged a tight first set before losing five games in a row in the second as the match appeared to be slipping away.
But the 20-year-old regrouped in the decider and survived a tough seventh game before breaking her French opponent’s serve to lead 5-3. She then enjoyed a love service game to seal the victory.
Saturday’s final against the 19-year-old Australian Maya Joint, who beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 7-5, 6-3, in the semifinals, was the youngest Eastbourne final since 1981 when Tracy Austin faced fellow American Andrea Jaeger.
Incidentally, Krejcikova reached the quarterfinals at Eastbourne but withdrew with a thigh injury on Thursday—where she was supposed to battle Eala.
Joint continued her impressive run as she reached her first WTA final on grass, coming from 5-3 behind in the opening set against Pavlyuchenkova to take control.
“I’m very excited,” the 51st-ranked Joint said on court. “I’ve learned to love playing on grass this week.”
