She has redeemed herself three years after their last battle.
On Wednesday, July 29 (Manila time), Filipina tennis star Alex Eala competed in the Round of 32 of the Mubadala DC Open in Washington, D.C., USA.
For her first match after her almost three-week-long break following her historic run at the recent Wimbledon Championships, the 21-year-old faced a familiar foe in China’s Zheng Qinwen.
The said game that was held at the Stadium marked their first after previously going against each other at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in 2023, where Zheng emerged as the winner of that specific play.
Although, three years later, the circumstances are different, with the Chinese player currently World No. 123 in Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) singles rank, while the Filipina is ranked No. 28.
In the first set of the game, a strong performance was delivered by Zheng, who had an early lead, before that was challenged by Eala to bring the game to an equal level at 2-2. However, the Paris 2024 Olympic gold medalist amswered with a few more winning games and ended that round on top.
In the second set, Alex bounced back doubled down on challenging her opponent and eventually won it to force their match to enter a deciding third set.
It was where the Filipina, who is the reigning winner of the Southeast Asian Games in women’s tennis, was able to score almost a clean sweep and capped the play with a win, with the final scores reading: 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Alex is set to face Canadian star Leylah Fernandez in the Round of 16, which is slated to happen late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning in Manila.
