THE trophy has been awarded, the applause has rained down from an adoring crowd in Washington that sounded more like the one in Manila that in a foreign land, and Alex Eala has given a gorgeous victory speech - her first at the WTA Tour level.
READ Long before DC Open final win, Eala already felt like a winner
That's done, so now let's get down to the business of what the Filipina rising star gained after coming back from a rain delay to overhaul a one-set deficit and beat top seed Jess Pegula, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, in the Mubadala DC Open final.
Prize money that comes up to an eye-popping P15.4 million (before taxes), 500 WTA ranking points that should be enough to put her in the Top 20 in the world, and all those critics who claim that she keeps choking in the big moments, now off her back.
Not bad, huh? Let's break it down.
Prize money
Being a WTA 500-level tournament, the DC Open has put up a prize pool of around US$4 million broken down to $2.4M for the ATP men's event and $1.63M for the WTA ladies tournament.
From that prize purse, Eala, as the women's singles champion, won $252,000, which comes up to P15.5M under the P60 exchange rate to the US dollar. That, by the way, also hikes her winnings this season alone past the $1.5M range (again, before taxes).
WTA ranking points
WTA 500 tournaments like the DC Open ranks just below the four Grand Slams and nine WTA 1000 championships in the tour calendar. As such, the tournament offers considerable ranking points - enough to shoot Eala up the rankings.
The DC Open champion alone offers 500 ranking points to its new champion Eala, who beat the tournament's top three seeds - No. 1 Jess Pegula, No. 2 Elina Svitolina, and No. 3 Naomi Osaka - as well as reigning Olympic gold medalist Qinwen Zheng, and defending champion Leylah Fernandez on the way to the title.
Those points should be enough to prop the 21-year old from her current world No. 28 to the Top 20 when the next WTA rankings are released, meaning she'll now be ranked ahead of the likes of Madison Keys and Jelena Ostapenko and next only to No. 14 Osaka among the highest-rated Asian players in the world.
The perk? She should be safely tucked in the main draw of most every big tournament in the world in the foreseeable future.
Critics off Eala's back
Alex Eala does amazing things on the court, says all the right things off it, has shown a deep love for flag and country, has never been involved in any single controversy, and yet - believe it or not - has her fair share of haters online.
These haters pop up every now and then on social media, mostly on the comments sections of the pages of mainstream media, ridiculing Eala as an overhyped, overrated choker each time she loses in the early rounds or comes up short of a title.
This single title - plus an 8-4 record against players in the world Top 10 - should get these haters off her back and silence even her fiercest critics.
Icing on the cake, right?
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
