Alex Eala\u2019s Wimbledon debut may have ended in defeat, but the trailblazing star\u2019s Centre Court suggested she will be back contending for many years to come.<\/p>\n
The Filipina was handed a daunting draw in the form of reigning champion Barbora Krejcikova, but more than held her own against one of the leading players of this era.<\/p>\n
Watching Eala<\/a> in any match, it\u2019s clear that she reads the game incredibly well for someone so young, and so comparatively still inexperienced.<\/p>\n That only becomes more obvious in person, where you can appreciate how quick her footwork is and how sharp she is when it comes to choosing where to direct her shot.<\/p>\n Of course, this is also a strength of Krejcikova\u2019s<\/a>, whose two Grand Slam singles titles have not come through a solid base of power, like many of her contemporaries.<\/p>\n It is her guile, her ability to disrupt and dislodge her opponents, and her ability to pick up her opponent\u2019s motions of play that have been key to her success.<\/p>\n For a while on Tuesday, it looked as if the former world No 2 had met her match against Eala, who rallied from an early break down to claim the opener.<\/p>\n But it was the reigning champion who ultimately pulled through, prevailing 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 to start her title defence with victory.<\/p>\n \u201cThis match is my dream match, my dream debut,\u201d said Eala in press, despite her loss.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst Wimbledon main draw in Centre Court against the defending champion. It was such a pleasure for me to share the court with her.<\/p>\n \u201cI think even though the second two sets, the scores were quite far, I think I had my chances. I think I did have chances, especially later on in the end, so start of the sets and ends of the sets.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just that I think she showed her composure, she showed her skill. She stepped up when she needed to in the important moments, and in the end that\u2019s why she got away.<\/p>\n \u201cI think in the first set I was able to kind of like dominate her a little bit in certain moments. In the end I think it was just one break.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the next two sets, I think she really did kind of step up. She was hitting quite close to the line, which she was doing consistently, partly I guess because I wasn\u2019t making her uncomfortable maybe or also because obviously she\u2019s very skilful.<\/p>\n \u201cCredit is due. Give credit where credit is due. And obviously I just need to look at my side and what I need to improve going on.\u201d<\/p>\n Jessica Pegula\u2019s Grand Slam woes continue with first Round 1 loss in five years<\/a><\/p>\n Stefanos Tsitsipas admits \u2018there is no point competing\u2019 if injury nightmare persists after Wimbledon blow<\/a><\/p>\n Win or lose, this was always going to be a historic day for the 20-year-old.<\/p>\n The Filipina is now the first woman from her nation to play a main draw match at Wimbledon, just weeks after becoming the first player from her nation to contest a Grand Slam match at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n Ranked at a career-high of 56th in the WTA Rankings after reaching her first WTA final in Eastbourne last week, she is also the only Filipina to ever be ranked inside the top 100 of the WTA Rankings.<\/p>\n Eala is already a trailblazer for her nation, and it is fitting that this was celebrated in her historic Grand Slam bow.<\/p>\n The 20-year-old revealed on social media before the match that she had received a replica of a sampaguita flower from Nike, and, when asked by Tennis365, Eala revealed how touching that gesture had been.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is so special for me,\u201d commented Eala.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, to just have something that reminds me of where I come from, of my country, and my culture out there on court, because I feel like that\u2019s what makes me special \u2013 where I come from.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the flower is the national flower of the Philippines. It\u2019s called the sampaguita. The whole idea behind it is it\u2019s kind of you reap what you sow, or what\u2019s sown will be reaped.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was kind of the whole message was to have something, a piece of home with me on such an iconic court.\u201d<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>:\u00a0Meet the coaches who fired Oliver Tarvet towards a Wimbledon showdown with Carlos Alcaraz<\/a><\/p>\n The post Alex Eala takes heart from encouraging \u2018dream debut\u2019 at Wimbledon<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alex Eala\u2019s Wimbledon debut may have ended in defeat, but the trailblazing star\u2019s Centre Court suggested she will be back contending for many years to come. The Filipina was handed a daunting draw in the form of reigning champion Barbora Krejcikova, but more than held her own against one of the leading players of this […]<\/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-671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","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=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Wimbledon News<\/h2>\n