Just a few weeks after Alex Eala claimed a famous win over Iga Swiatek, the rising star will face the former world No 1 in their second career meeting as they will square off at the Madrid Open.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old Eala<\/a> was the breakout sensation at the Miami Open in March as she beat three Grand Slam winners \u2013 including Swiatek \u2013 en route to reaching the semi-final of the WTA 1000 event.<\/p>\n Besides Swiatek, the teenager also defeated 2017 French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko and reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys.<\/p>\n Her stunning run helped her to break into the top 80 of the WTA Rankings as she has since reached a career-high of No 72, easily the highest-ranked Filipina in WTA Tour<\/a> history.<\/p>\n She returned to WTA action in the Spanish capital Monday and claimed a first-round win over Viktoriya Tomova with her reward a second career match against second seed and defending champion Swiatek.<\/p>\n Eala won 6-2, 7-5 when they met in Miami, but the youngster knows the five-time Grand Slam winner will come with a different game plan in Madrid.<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely think that each match is a different story,\u201d she said. \u201cEven if it\u2019s against the same player every time \u2013 doesn\u2019t matter if I play her at the same time next year in Miami or in Madrid next year, it\u2019s going to be a different story than the last one.\u201d<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not forget that Swiatek has a 13-2 record at the Madrid Open as she finished runner-up in 2023 and lost in the third round on her debut in 2021.<\/p>\n In an interview with former Philippines player Dyan Castillejo, Eala explained how she will approach the game.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the same mentality as every match, the same mentality as today. She is a big player so I have to be ready for what she is going to bring out and trust that I will prepare well,\u201d the 19-year-old said.<\/p>\n Alex Eala close to Naomi Osaka record as she books Iga Swiatek rematch in Madrid<\/a><\/p>\n OFFICIAL: Alex Eala to make Grand Slam history at French Open<\/a><\/p>\n She added: \u201cEvery game is different and just because I beat her last time it doesn\u2019t mean I am going to beat her this time. She is a great player so I am not expecting anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Eala is also determined not to let her success in Miami distract her from what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n \u201cNow that the dust has settled, I try not to think about Miami so much,\u201d she said. \u201cPersonally, of course it comes to mind when everyone\u2019s asking \u2013 but in my mind, I have my whole life to look back at those moments and I\u2019ll always have those memories.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the tour goes on, competition goes on, so right now I\u2019m fully focused on Madrid.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Alex Eala shares thoughts on Iga Swiatek rematch at Madrid Open<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just a few weeks after Alex Eala claimed a famous win over Iga Swiatek, the rising star will face the former world No 1 in their second career meeting as they will square off at the Madrid Open. The 19-year-old Eala was the breakout sensation at the Miami Open in March as she beat three […]<\/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-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347","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=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Alex Eala News<\/h3>\n