MANILA, Philippines – For the first time in the pro ranks, Alex Eala qualified for the main draw of a WTA 500 event.
Eala accomplished this new career milestone after breezing past Samantha Dawn Murray Sharan of Great Britain, 6-4, 6-2, in the last round of the qualification of the 2024 Guadalajara Open Akron in Mexico on Sunday, September 8 (Monday, September 9, Manila time).
The 19-year-old Eala went into the last qualifying round as the prohibitive favorite against the 36-year-old Murray Sharan, who mostly plays in the doubles circuit where she is ranked 116th in the world.
Murray Sharan managed to keep in step with Eala in the first set.
After the Filipina opened a 3-0 lead, the Brit veteran slowly inched her way back into the set until she leveled the count at 4-4. Eala, however, recovered just in time to take the next two games to claim the opening set at 6-4.
The second set was Eala at her best.
She broke Murray Sharan right in the very first game and in the fifth game on her way to erecting an insurmountable 5-1 advantage. It was all over by the eighth game as Eala finished the match at the Panamerican Tennis Center in just 1 hour and 13 minutes.
The Filipina teen standout will have an extra day to recuperate and practice before she plunges back into action on Tuesday (Wednesday, Manila time). She will need that extra time to prepare as awaiting her in the opening round of the $922,573 tournament is sixth seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic.
The world No.147 Eala will be the clear underdog against the world No. 45 Bouzkova.
Like Eala who won the US Open girls singles in 2022, the 26-year-old Bouzkova is also a former US Open girls singles champion, bringing home the junior grand slam trophy in 2014.
Bouzkova attained a career-high WTA ranking of 24th in the world in 2022, the same year she made the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. This year, she also reached the third round of the French Open and the second round of both Wimbledon and the US Open.
The Czech has defeated some of the best players in the world, including recent US Open champion and world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 6 and 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff, and world No. 11 Danielle Collins.– Rappler.com
