By MARK REY MONTEJO
Alex Eala lost in her bid to win her first-ever Tour crown but won —again — the heart of the Filipinos, what her valiant and desperate effort.
In a game that saw the momentum swing like a pendulum, Eala gave it her all before yielding to Australia’s Maya Joint, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10) in the championship round of the WTA 250 Lexus Eastbourne Open at the Centre Court in Great Britain Saturday evening, June 28 (Philippine time).
Even British fans got emotional when Eala shed tears of joy, and perhaps of frustration.
In the battle of two of women’s tennis rising stars, Eala, 20, had four chances to close it out in the tiebreaker the 19-year-old Joint always found a way to recover as the former committed several errors which she exploited en route to her second WTA crown.
The Australian also became the youngest winner of the event since 1981 – the last was once 18-year-old American Tracy Austin, who beat compatriot Andrea Jaeger in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
Coincidentally, Austin and Jaeger match were the youngest finalists in the tournament ever since the Eala-Joint title showdown this year.
Eala, for her part, won her first-ever podium in a WTA-sanctioned tournament, making her the first Filipina to ever achieve such an honor in history.
“You guys made it super special [and] it’s my first WTA final. It’s a big deal for me and for my country too because it’s the first time any Filipina has done anything [like this before],” an emotional Eala said moments after the game.
“I guess that’s also why I’m so emotional, it’s only the first, [but] I’ll definitely work hard to do more [and] Wimbledon is next week so hopefully I’ll forget about this much sooner,” she added.
Despite her loss, the diuble Asian Games bronze medalist showed promise on grass court, a timely improvement that she could use in her second Grand Slam main draw appearance in Wimbledon this week.
Prior to her title defeat, Eala turned heads after beating tennis giants in 2021 edition winner Latvian Jelena Ostapenko in Round of 16, as well as Russian Dayana Yastremska and French Varvara Gracheva in the quarterfinal and semifinal respectively.
She also downed Italian Lucia Bronzetti in Round of 32 after eliminating American Hailey Baptiste and Turkish Zeynep Sonmez in the qualifying rounds.
