Eala nears historic Wimby stint
Alex Eala inched closer to her dream of competing in the main draw of the Wimbledon following a 1-6, 7-6, 6-3 win over Tamara Zidanšek of Slovenia in the second qualifying round of the Wimbledon Championships in London late Wednesday.
Eala, 19, needed two hours and 33 minutes to beat her European foe and move a win away from becoming the first Filipino female tennis player to reach the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament.
Prior to beating Zidanšek, Eala defeated Jessika Ponchet of France, 7-6, 6-4, in the first qualifying round.
Eala is quite familiar to stepping on the verge of the main draw of a Grand Slam event.
Last May, she was also on the brink of making her Grand Slam debut in the French Open after winning over Ma Yexin of China, 6-1, 6-1, and Taylah Preston of Australia, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, in her first two qualifying matches.
But the Filipina superstar suffered a 6-4, 6-7, 4-6 loss to Julia Riera of Argentina in the third qualifying match, dealing a major blow to her bid of competing at Roland Garros.
Now, the two-time Asian Games bronze medalist has another chance of redeeming herself pending the result of his encounter with Lulu Sun of New Zealand in the third qualifying round. Eala and Sun are competing at press time.
Sun, who is currently at No. 123 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, beat Gabriela Knutson of the Czech Republic in a hard-fought 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 win in the second qualifying round.
A win over the Kiwi netter not only gives Eala a chance to play against the likes of world No. 1 tennis player Iga Swiatek of Poland and No. 2 Coco Gauff of the United States but also take home a cash prize of 60,000 British pounds or round P4.4 million.