Former world No 4 Greg Rusedski has revealed why he does not think Alex Eala should be fazed by her tricky-looking draw at the 2026 Cincinnati Open.<\/p>\n
Eala<\/a>, who is the 17th seed in Cincinnati, will face world No 74 Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the second round after receiving a first round bye.<\/p>\n The world No 20 is then projected to meet Amanda Anisimova \u2014 the ninth seed and a two-time Grand Slam finalist \u2014 in the third round at the WTA 1000 event.<\/p>\n The 21-year-old Filipina has won 10 of her last 12 matches, having reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and the Canadian Open either side of her victory at the Washington Open.<\/p>\n Speaking on the latest episode of his Off Court With Greg Rusedski<\/a> podcast, Rusedski described Eala as \u201cthe one to look out for in Cincinnati.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cObviously Eala, even though she didn\u2019t win the tournament (Canada) had a seven-match win streak on the WTA Tour, which was impressive,\u201d said the 1997 US Open finalist.<\/p>\n \u201cBy match eight against [Belinda] Bencic, she ran out of gas a little bit. So, she\u2019s the one to look out for in Cincinnati.\u201d<\/p>\n Iga Swiatek reveals why she was \u2018angry\u2019 after calling out critics following Canadian Open win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Legendary coach makes \u2018almost impossible\u2019 claim about Alex Eala as Roger Federer comparison dismissed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n Rusedski then addressed whether Eala could break into the top 10 of the WTA Rankings by the end of the US Open as he also discussed her tough draw in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, no question about it,\u201d said the former British No 1.<\/p>\n \u201cBut why should she care whether she\u2019s playing [Amanda] Anisimova, or whoever\u2019s in the section?<\/p>\n \u201cLook at the people she beat to win Washington \u2014 it was world-class players from start to finish. Then she goes to Toronto running on fumes and emotions and still wins a couple of matches, as well.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I\u2019m not worried about it. She competes, she fights, she\u2019s so mentally tough that it doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s in her way.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to play great tennis to beat her. And I see her only going one direction, and that\u2019s up.\u201d<\/p>\n Rusedski recently dismissed concerns about Eala\u2019s busy schedule prior to the US Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like physically she\u2019s already in good shape, she\u2019s strong mentally \u2014 the mind and body go hand in hand. And when you\u2019re young, the body bounces back a lot quicker than when you get into your 30s and later years,\u201d said Rusedski.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I\u2019m not worried about that. She\u2019ll play Cincy, and then she\u2019ll have a week off to prepare for the US Open. That\u2019s what all the big names do, so for me, there\u2019s no concern.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Alex Eala close to rankings breakthrough as Aryna Sabalenka loses No 1 spot<\/a> The post Alex Eala \u2018shouldn\u2019t care\u2019 about tough Cincinnati Open draw, says Grand Slam finalist<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former world No 4 Greg Rusedski has revealed why he does not think Alex Eala should be fazed by her tricky-looking draw at the 2026 Cincinnati Open. Eala, who is the 17th seed in Cincinnati, will face world No 74 Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the second round after receiving a first round bye. The world No […]<\/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-2635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635","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=2635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}WTA Tour News<\/h2>\n
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