ALEX EALA EYES QUARTERFINALS BERTH IN EASTBOURNE OPEN

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino tennis ace Alex Eala aims for a quarterfinals berth as faces a familiar foe in the Eastbourne Open round of 16 on Wednesday.

Eala faces either Latvian Jelena Ostapenko or British Sonay Kortal in the final eight, each of them she already faced before once.

World no. 20 Ostapenko and world no 49 Kortal were competing in their round of 32 match on Tuesday evening.

Eala, who made quick work of World no. 61 Lucia Bronzetti of Italy in the opener on Monday, first encountered Kortal in Slovakia back in March 2023.

The Philippine pride bowed to Kortal at Trnava 2, 2-6, 2-6, in the second round of the tourney, where the former was 220th in the WTA rankings while the latter was 262nd.

Ranked 74th today, Eala previously battled no. 20 Ostapenko at the Miami Open last March when she stunned the former French Open titlist in the round of 64, 7-6 (2), 7-5.

A wildcard entry that time, Eala was ranked 140th in the world while Ostapenko was 25th.

That victory catapulted Eala to an even more historic run as she took down world no. 5 (now no. 6) Madison Keys of the United States in the round of 32, 6-4, 6-2.

After a walkover in the round of 16, Eala then scored the biggest upset of her career by taking down world no. 2 (now no. 8) and 5-time Grand Slam champ Iga Swiatek of Poland in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 7-5

The dream run ended in the semifinals with a 6-7 (3), 7-5, 3-6 defeat to world no. 4 (now no. 3) Jessica Pegula of the United States.

Eala's epic run saw a series of firsts -- the first Filipino to defeat a top 25, a top 5, and a top 2 player on top being the first netter from the Philippines to reach the semifinals of a top-tier tournament.

After reaching that deep in the tournament, Eala climbed 65 rungs and elevated to a then career-best 75th in the WTA rankings.

She even climbed to a new career-high 69th before dropping to 77th and then improving to 74th just this week.

2025-06-24T06:16:37Z