By MARK REY MONTEJO
Filipina ace Alex Eala suffered a disappointing first round exit at the Asutralian Open, but her steady rise in the trajectory did not go unnoticed among the sport’s stars in Down Under.
Most notably, Novak Djokovic, a Serbian who holds the most Grand Slam wins with 24 titles, is fully aware of Eala’s impact after seeing the latter’s first-round match that filled the venue with a rapturous crowd.
The 38-year-old netter, who barged in the men’s third round against Dutch Botic van de Zandschulp, fully understood Eala’s situation and saw it as a “good problem.”
“I saw the other day with Alex Eala, that’s been a talk which is understandable. There’s some players coming from respective countries, like she’s coming from the Philippines, which is now a big deal,” said Djokovic.
“She’s been the biggest ever tennis player from that country, which is a big country and there’s a big interest. So things like that happen. You could argue that it was maybe a poor schedule and maybe they could schedule him on a bigger court,” he added.
Schedules and venues are big concerns for most touring pros – Eala included.
“Yes, but again, she’s so young and she’s just coming through, and obviously the first couple of rounds, the schedule is so packed,” said Djokovic. “The big courts with big names, it’s difficult. It’s not easy to manage that.”
It was a response by Djokovic after a reporter asked about the event being “too crowded, too corporate, too commercial, and too profit centric at times.”
“Having too much crowd on this or any other tennis tournament is a very good problem to have, I think there are much worse problems,” Djokovic stressed.
“But again, it’s a good problem to have, to be honest. Let’s just imagine if there’s a lack of people coming or that stands are empty, that’s a bigger problem. I mean, this is great,” he continued.
Last Monday, Eala, 20, made her maiden Aussie Open main-draw where she suffered a 6-0, 3-6, 2-6 first-round loss to hard-hitting American Alycia Parks.
Eala, however, will for going for a fitting bounce back run as a wild card entry in the historic WTA 125 Philippine Women’s Open slated Jan. 26 to 31 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center in Manila.
