Eala's breakthrough is complete with Washington title
For the first time, the Philippines has a champion on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, and her name is Alexandra Eala.
The 20-year-old's history-making efforts for her country took another step Monday, as she came from behind to finish a victory against top seed Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the rain-delayed final of the Mubadala DC Open.
The match was suspended on Sunday night after extensive rainfall with Pegula leading 6-4, 1-2. But from 6-4, 4-3 behind, the Filipina wrestled control away and never looked back. She won the last nine games, including a 6-0 third set where she dropped just eight points.
'A crazy 24 hours'
Eala confessed afterwards that the inclement weather brought about "a crazy 24 hours," and the highest-stakes rain delay of her career so far.
"I think I warmed up a thousand times," she said. "It was difficult, I think ... at the same time, it's happened to me a lot; rain delays a lot of times in my life. I think this is just kind of another one of those, although it was a lot higher stakes. But I think I was able to take my time and take those learnings from the first half of the match and do my best to apply them in the second, and I think it worked pretty well."
The meaning behind the milestone
In her last appearance in a tour-level singles final, Eala came up agonizingly short. She had four championship points against Maya Joint at the Lexus Eastbourne Open last year, but fell in a third-set tiebreak. In Washington, however, she repeatedly met the moment. She beat three seeds in four rounds -- No. 2 seed Elina Svitolina, No. 3 seed Naomi Osaka and No. 7 seed and defending champion Leylah Fernandez -- as well as 2024 Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen on her way to the final.
With her wins against Svitolina and Pegula, Eala now is tied with Elena Rybakina and Elina Svitolina with seven Top 10 victories this season. The left-hander is also projected to break into the Top 20 in the PIF WTA Rankings for the first time."
"At the beginning of the week, there is no way I would have thought that I would be holding this trophy ... These things kind of creep up on you, and I hold these moments really close to me," she said.
"[The draw] was a very steep hill," she continued. "Coming into the tournament, I knew that the competition was super strong and my draw was quite tough. Every match was just a different set of obstacles. So I'm really, really proud. I think I encountered my fair share of obstacles this week."
"I think I ended the tournament in better shape than I started. I think each match I kept improving and kept learning things about myself. So definitely gives me a lot of confidence, and it's just really nice to see all the things that I have been working on off court or during training being implemented in matches."
