IT TOOK four grass-court tournaments for Alex Eala to find her rhythm — and now she’s peaking at the perfect time, with Wimbledon just three days away.
Sustaining a stunning run from the qualifiers to the final, the 20-year-old Filipina surged to her first-ever appearance in a WTA title match at the Lexus Eastbourne Open, delivering her most impressive win yet on grass.
LOOK: Alex Eala makes it to entry list of Wimbledon
Her breakout campaign at the Miami Open now in the rearview mirror, Eala secured her maiden finals berth with a hard-fought win over France’s Varvara Gracheva, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 on Friday night in a match that lasted two hours and 22 minutes.
Eala will face either Australian teen sensation Maya Joint or Russia’s Anastasia Sergeyevna in the weekend final, which marks another historic milestone for the first Filipina to make such an indelible mark in the world of tennis.
The world's No. 74 ranked player failed to make a mark at the French Open and has had mostly disappointing results in her first three grass-court events, leading to doubts on whether her Miami Open breakthrough was a fluke.
Now a title in the WTA 250 event, which is two rungs below a grand slam and one under WTA 1000 tournaments like the Miami Open, is within reach.
Eala quickly raced to a 3-0 lead before Gracheva took her first game, 3-1. Eala extended her lead to 4-1, but Gracheva fought back, winning four straight games to brab the lead at 5-4, mostly by capitalizing on Eala’s errors.
Eala responded by tying it at 5-all, then regained momentum to close out the first set in 57 minutes.
In the second set, Eala again started strong, 2-0, but Gracheva, ranked well below Eala by the WTA at No. 111, suddenly found her form and rhythm, pulling off a run of six successive games to force a decider.
Eala now 6-0
Gracheva is the sixth straight victim of Eala in this tournament, counting two in the qualifiers. Her last triumph came Thursday night, dismantling world No. 42 Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, 6-1, 6-2 to book her spot in the semis.
Before that, she ousted a tough string of higher-ranked opponents in No. 61 Lucia Bronzetti, No. 56 Hailey Baptiste, and No. 20 Jelena Ostapenko.
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