Alex Eala won the biggest title of her career after securing a comeback three-set win over Jessica Pegula in the Washington Open final in a match that was played over two days.
The 21-year-old dropped a tight, back-and-forth first set 6-4 on Sunday before the contest was called off for the day due to rain and lightning in the American capital, with Pegula trailing 1-2 in the second.
But when the encounter resumed on Monday afternoon, it was a very different story as Eala‘s pressure told as the former US Open finalist dropped the second 6-4.
All the momentum was with the unseeded player in the decider, with the left-hander grabbing an early break, and she never looked back as she won 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
Eala, who beat second seed Elina Svitolina and third seed Naomi Osaka along the way, secured her first WTA 500 title, which will give her a huge amount of confidence heading into the Canadian Open in the coming days. But for Pegula, this was a damaging defeat after being the better player on Sunday.
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Washington rankings points breakdown
Prior to this tournament, Pegula was comfortably in third place in the WTA Tour rankings, with Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka well clear of the chasing pack in second and first, respectively.
Eala, on the other hand, was at a career-high of 28 but after she won four matches on her way to the final, she rose to 24th.
Victory saw her crash the the top 20 for the first time, overtaking French Open finalist Maja Chwalinska in the process.
Eala is now up to 20th after earning a hard-fought 500 points, while Pegula still picks up a respectable 325 of her own. The full rankings breakdown for the tournament is below.
First round: 1
Second round: 60
Quarter-final: 108
Semi-final: 195
Runner-up: 325
Champion: 500
Incidentally, Pegula remains on 6,625, which is 976 ahead of Coco Gauff in fourth but still 1,431 adrift of Rybakina, who is a further 494 points back from world No 1 Sabalenka.
Eala jumps up to 2,106 points, and will be targeting the top 10 in the not so distant future.
Washington prize money breakdown
This is the 14th edition of this tournament for women but the 57th for the men.
The total prize money for the 32-man draw is $2,469,450 (£1,838,999) but for the 28-strong women’s field, it is down at $1,637,982 (£1,219,805).
Last year’s women’s champion, Leylah Fernandez, earned $197,570 (£147,130) after beating Anna Kalinskaya but this time out, Eala pocketed $54,430 (£40,539) more than that.
Pegula, on the other hand, collected $155,000 as she falls to 11-13 in WTA Tour finals. Below is the full prize money breakdown for the Washington Open.
First round: $17,440 (£12,984)
Second round: $24,474 (£18,220)
Quarter-final: $47,750 (£35,555)
Semi-final: $90,900 (£67,693)
Runner-up: $155,000 (£115,428)
Champion: $252,000 (£187,664)
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