{"id":2778,"date":"2026-09-12T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T06:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2778"},"modified":"2026-09-12T06:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T06:00:11","slug":"john-mcenroe-has-some-candid-advice-for-alex-eala-after-describing-key-shot-as-a-liability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2778","title":{"rendered":"John McEnroe has some candid advice for Alex Eala after describing key shot as \u2018a liability\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Eala has emerged as one of the biggest stars in women\u2019s tennis over the last few months, but seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe has suggested one of her key shots is still \u2018a liability\u2019.<\/p>\n

Eala achieved her best result at a Grand Slam when she reached the last-16 at Wimbledon in July, beating defending champion Iga Swiatek as part of that run.<\/p>\n

She backed that up by winning her first WTA Tour title at the Washington Open, with a couple of wins at the US Open highlighting her star power.<\/p>\n

Eala\u2019s groundstrokes are now as potent as the top players in the women\u2019s game, but her serve was broken nine times in her third round defeat against Iva Jovic at the US Open.<\/p>\n

That is a statistic that inspired McEnroe to suggest Eala needs to improve her serve if she is to take her game to the next level.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/h2>\n

Greg Rusedski\u2019s history as a coach as he extends coaching offer to Alexandra Eala<\/a><\/p>\n

Alexandra Eala: What medals has she won for the Philippines ahead of 2026 Asian Games?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll start by saying the sky\u2019s the limit for her,\u201d said McEnroe, responding to a question from Tennis365 in his role as a Eurosport and HBO Max analyst at the US Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn tennis you need the full package. You need the movement you need, you know, that\u2019s obviously extremely important in tennis with men and the women.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs she a great athlete? Yes, but to be that A-plus, that\u2019s where you get found out if you are not at that level.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everyone\u2019s six one or six feet like (Elena) Rybakina or (Aryna) Sabalenka 5\u201911. Not everyone is as fast as Coco Gauff. That\u2019s the type of thing that would bring Eala to the next level. of thing like bring her, excuse me, bring her to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we asked McEnroe what area of her game needed to improve most, he didn\u2019t hesitate in his answer as he said: \u201cIf she wants to win one of these majors, she\u2019s got to improve the serve. It\u2019s a liability. It\u2019s gotten better, but, you know, there\u2019s more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"John\n

John McEnroe \u2013 Eurosport Tennis Expert<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Despite that comment, McEnroe was full of praise for Eala, as he suggested the Filipina is backing up the hype around her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Philippines doesn\u2019t have a history of tennis that I\u2019m aware of, so there\u2019s huge interest in Eala,\u201d he added. \u201cShe\u2019s as popular as Manny Pacquiao was in his days at the top of boxing and the great thing is, Eala is backing it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, she\u2019s just competing so well. It\u2019s just a beautiful thing to watch. So just from the standpoint of a tennis player, to see her, you know, sort of learn how to develop her skills is pretty awesome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about her. There\u2019s like a she uses with personality and competitiveness at the same time, which people gravitate towards.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Why Carlos Alcaraz and Alex Eala left the US Open as winners despite their defeats<\/a><\/p>\n

The post John McEnroe has some candid advice for Alex Eala after describing key shot as \u2018a liability\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Eala has emerged as one of the biggest stars in women\u2019s tennis over the last few months, but seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe has suggested one of her key shots is still \u2018a liability\u2019. Eala achieved her best result at a Grand Slam when she reached the last-16 at Wimbledon in July, beating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778","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=2778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}