Alex Eala is the first to acknowledge that her serve \u201ccan be uncomfortable\u201d, but she insists it is still a work in progress as she brushed off concerns that it is \u201cholding her back\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Filipina continues her stunning rise in tennis as she has reached her first WTA 500 final at the Washington DC Open after beating Zheng Qinwen, Leylah Fernandez, Elina Svitolina<\/a> and Naomi Osaka.<\/p>\n Despite her supposedly weak serve, Eala<\/a> has dropped only one set during the tournament and that was in her first match against former world No 4 Zheng as she lost the opening set before winning the next 10.<\/p>\n She was broken only once by Osaka in the semi-final while she broke twice in both sets and generally had the upper hand when it came to serving, as her first-serve percentage was at 59.6% compared to the Japanese star\u2019s 54.2%.<\/p>\n Eala also won 71.4% of first-serve points with Osaka on 59.4% while she dominated the second-serve points won with 78.9% against 48.1%, dropping only four points on her second serve over the two sets.<\/p>\n Alex Eala +4 in WTA Rankings as she comes through \u2018jam-packed\u2019 field to reach final<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Alex Eala told the effect she\u2019s having on the Washington Open after stunning victory against Qinwen Zheng<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Not bad for someone whose serve came under fire earlier in the week when former world No 1 Rennae Stubbs<\/a> raised concerns over it.<\/p>\n \u201cEala\u2019s serve will never win her a Grand Slam,\u201d the four-time women\u2019s doubles Grand Slam winner said on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast. \u201cI know people could say the same about Angie Kerber, but I feel that\u2019s what\u2019s holding Eala back.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s also what\u2019s holding Jessica Pegula back. Pegula\u2019s second serve is very vulnerable against players who hit the ball hard. I still hope she can win a Grand Slam, but right now I simply don\u2019t see it happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Eala was asked about her serve after her win one-hour and 16-minute win over Osaka and knows there is work to do, but feels it allows her to use her other weapons.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that my serve can be uncomfortable. I think I try to play around a lot with variety,\u201d Eala said in her post-match press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, it would be great if I had a serve that went 200 kilometres per hour. I\u2019d love that also, but it\u2019s a process. Who knows? I\u2019m not going to put a cap on my serve. Maybe I will one day serve 200. You never know (smiling).<\/p>\n \u201cI like to look at it as a multi-dimensional thing. I have a variety of weapons in my bag. I think it\u2019s also a good thing that I don\u2019t rely on my serve alone, although I\u2019m standing by that it\u2019s dependable sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n The post What Alex Eala had to say about her serve after Grand Slam winner claimed \u2018it\u2019s holding her back\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alex Eala is the first to acknowledge that her serve \u201ccan be uncomfortable\u201d, but she insists it is still a work in progress as she brushed off concerns that it is \u201cholding her back\u201d. The Filipina continues her stunning rise in tennis as she has reached her first WTA 500 final at the Washington DC […]<\/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-2576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576","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=2576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Alex Eala News<\/h2>\n