Eala makes history as first Filipina to reach WTA Tour final

EASTBOURNE (AFP): Alexandra Eala became the first player from the Philippines to reach a WTA Tour final after beating Varvara Gracheva 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in the last four at Eastbourne on Friday. Eala survived a tense clash lasting more than two hours to make history in the Wimbledon warm-up event on the grass at Devonshire Park. In a final featuring two of the rising stars of the women’s game, the 20-year-old will face Australian teenager Maya Joint on Saturday.

Joint, 19, ranked 51 the world, beat Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-3. “There were tough moments where she was playing well, and I didn’t know how to get out of it,” Eala said. “It was a challenge for both of us, physically and mentally. She’s a really solid player, had some moments where she was really dominating.

“The fact that I was able to stay there and wait for my opportunities was a big achievement for me.” Eala’s run to the final underlined the world number 74’s emergence as one to watch. After coming through qualifying to make the main draw on the south coast, Eala has beaten Lucia Bronzetti, former French Open champion Ostapenko (via retirement), Nottingham Open finalist Dayana Yastremska and France’s Gracheva.

She burst onto the scene with three shock victories over Grand Slam winners Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek to reach the Miami Open semi-finals in March. Eala is due to face reigning champion Barbora Krejcikova in the Wimbledon first round on Centre Court on Tuesday.

But Krejcikova is struggling with a thigh injury that forced her to pull out of the Eastbourne quarter-finals on Thursday, putting the Czech’s title defence in doubt. Later on Friday, the Eastbourne ATP semi-finals feature defending champion Taylor Fritz against Spanish sixth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina while French fourth seed Ugo Humbert faces America’s Jenson Brooksby.