Alex Eala cemented herself as one of the most popular players on the entire WTA Tour at the beginning of the year, but it\u2019s only recently that she has begun to play like a truly elite star.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old came into her own on the grass court swing. She captured the Birmingham Open to begin the swing and then picked up victories against Elena Rybakina and Elina Svitolina en route to the semi finals of the Berlin Open.<\/p>\n
Her fortunes continued at Wimbledon as she reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.<\/p>\n
Eala defeated Renata Zaraz\u00faa, Maya Joint, and Iga Swiatek to reach the Wimbledon fourth round, before she was defeated by Jasmine Paolini in three sets.<\/p>\n
The star has returned to the Philippines following her breakout Grand Slam run, where she received a heroes welcome from her biggest fans in the nation.<\/p>\n
The star has taken part in a press conference back home, where she has opened up about a number of topics in the sport.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a BPI press conference, Eala was asked if there are any misconceptions that fans have about professional tennis players.<\/p>\n
EXCLUSIVE: Alex Eala gets glowing \u2018great potential\u2019 verdict from Caroline Wozniacki after Wimbledon run<\/a><\/p>\n Alex Eala set to be handed a glorious chance to climb the rankings after Wimbledon heroics<\/a><\/p>\n The Filipina star responded: \u201cMaybe a misconception that\u2019s popping into my head\u2026 I\u2019ve heard, I don\u2019t know if this is true, people say that tennis players can be self-centred.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s true. And if someone is self-centred I don\u2019t think it\u2019s because they are a tennis player. I think maybe they\u2019re just being self-centred because that\u2019s who they are.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s true that in tennis, to a certain point, when it comes to competition you have to put yourself first, and you have to think of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n Eala<\/a> is enjoying a well-deserved break following Wimbledon<\/a>, but she has already ear-marked her next tournament ahead of the North American hardcourt swing.<\/p>\n The Filipina star is set to play the Washington Open, which is set to take place between July 27th and August 2nd.<\/p>\n Eala will be joined by Jessica Pegula<\/a>, Svitolina<\/a>, Marta Kostyuk<\/a>, Naomi Osaka<\/a>, Paolini<\/a>, Iva Jovic<\/a>, Diana Shnaider<\/a>, and Anna Kalinskaya<\/a> at the event.<\/p>\n Venus Williams<\/a> and Qinwen Zheng have also been awarded wildcards for the tournament, so it will not be easy for Eala to continue the excellent form she has shown on the grass.<\/p>\n Following the Washington event, Eala is then expected to play the Canadian Open in Toronto as she prepares to get ready for the US Open at the end of August.<\/p>\n The post Alex Eala responds to recent criticism she\u2019s heard about professional tennis players<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alex Eala cemented herself as one of the most popular players on the entire WTA Tour at the beginning of the year, but it\u2019s only recently that she has begun to play like a truly elite star. The 21-year-old came into her own on the grass court swing. She captured the Birmingham Open to begin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}