Down a set and break, Eala overcomes Zheng in Washington debut win

WASHINGTON -- It's a Washington DC debut win for Alexandra Eala.

Down a set and a break, the World No. 28 rallied to defeat wild card Zheng Qinwen 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of the Mubadala DC Open. The Filipina will next face reigning champion Leylah Fernandez, who defeated Magda Linette in straight sets Monday. 

At 4-3 in the second set, Zheng had just broken Eala at love, two games away from her first win at the tournament after an early exit last year. Zheng, former No. 4 but current No. 123 on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, had seemingly been in control of the match up until that point with the first set in her back pocket.

Then, Eala returned the favor with a break of Zheng's serve at love, kickstarting a stretch of seven consecutive games that saw Eala take the second set and amass a double-break 4-0 lead in the decider. 

Zheng snapped the streak with a break of Eala, but following similar pattern to the second set, Eala got the break back, but this time it secured the match. Though this was the first meeting between the two on the WTA Tour, Eala's win Tuesday levels to head-to-head at 1-1 after Zheng won a three-hour thriller at the 2023 Asian Games.

'It's not an exaggeration. That's actually what they tell me.'

Tournament chairman Mark Ein told the media Tuesday that in the spring a huge effort was to bring Eala to Washington. The demand was certainly there, as within the last month, when Eala's first-time participation was confirmed, the ticketing team had received the same inquiry one after another.

"I will say, over the last month the ticketing team says at least 80%, if not more, of the requests in this tournament are about when is Alex Eala playing?," Ein said. "Honestly, I think it's more, and they just didn't want to say it was more, but they're, like, virtually all. It's not an exaggeration. That's actually what they tell me.

"When you look at the amazing players here and how many great stars there are, it says something about Alex's following. Obviously she's been an icon, become an icon in the Philippines, but worldwide. So there's obviously Filipinos everywhere. Having her here is honestly one of the really great things that's already happened this year."

While it wasn't a sold-out crowd Tuesday afternoon in Stadium Court, it was by a far pro-Eala fan base with Filipina flags seen here and there. 

Eala's now guaranteed one more match in the United States capital, and she'll have a chance to avenge a straight-sets defeat to Fernandez in Stuttgart earlier this year.

More to come...