Alex Eala\u2019s thrilling run of form continued as she cruised through her opening match at the Cincinnati Open, as she admitted her life has changed in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Eala, who is seeded No 17 for the WTA 1000 tournament, took her record on North American hard courts to an impressive 8-1 over the last few weeks as she beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse.<\/p>\n
Eala was leading 6-1, 3-0 when her opponent was forced to retire, but she admitted her level was where she wanted it to be after another big-hitting display.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that I was playing well, I think I felt the ball good, was really focused and tried to keep myself in the zone, I think I did a good job of that,\u201d said Eala.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, nobody likes to finish a match with a retirement, first and foremost, I just want to wish Gabriela-Ruse a speedy recovery. Injuries aren\u2019t fun, so I hope she recovers soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Eala is a \u2018problem\u2019 for her WTA rivals, says former world No 11<\/a><\/p>\n Aryna Sabalenka replaced as No 1 as Alex Eala 23rd in alternative tennis rankings<\/a><\/p>\n Eala\u2019s star status continues to build, and another bumper crowd watched her opening match in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n There were plenty of Philippine flags in evidence as the Eala fan club got the win they were hoping for and she admitted she is having to adapt to life as a tennis A-lister.<\/p>\n \u201cMy days have gotten a little more packed with the commitments and spending time with you guys (the media), but obviously in a very good way, and I\u2019m enjoying it a lot,\u201d added Eala.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a good sign, and it\u2019s helping me become, I guess, a stronger player and be more kind of established on tour.\u201d<\/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 Eala\u2019s success on court is showing no sign of waning and this latest win saw her move up to a career-high No 18 in the live WTA Rankings.<\/p>\n She is also getting praise from high-profile voices, with former US Open finalist Greg Rusedski among her most vocal supporters.<\/p>\n Eala will now face a tough test against 2025 Wimbledon and US Open finalist Amanda Anisimova in Cincinnati, but Rusedski suggests she should fear no one after a thrilling run to the WTA Tour title in Washington earlier this month saw her beat a host of top players.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy should she care whether she\u2019s playing an Anisimova, whoever\u2019s in the section?\u201d asked Rusedski on his podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cLook at the people she beat to win Washington. 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. You\u2019ve got to play great tennis to beat her. And I see her only going one direction and that\u2019s up.<\/p>\n \u201cShe had a seven-match win streak on the WTA tour, which was impressive. By match eight against Bencic, she ran out of gas a little bit in Toronto, but she is one to watch in Cincinnati.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Alex Eala\u2019s full press conference as she reveals what would make a \u2018successful\u2019 Cincinnati Open<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Alex Eala makes candid confession after latest big win provides rankings boost<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alex Eala\u2019s thrilling run of form continued as she cruised through her opening match at the Cincinnati Open, as she admitted her life has changed in recent weeks. Eala, who is seeded No 17 for the WTA 1000 tournament, took her record on North American hard courts to an impressive 8-1 over the last few […]<\/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-2645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645","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=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}