Alex Eala has never been this deep at Flushing Meadows. The 21-year-old from the Philippines booked a spot in the US Open third round for the first time in her career on Thursday, September 3 (early Friday, Manila time), dismantling Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-1, 6-4 on the court at Louis Armstrong Stadium in New York.
Seeded 17th at this year’s tournament, Eala needed just 64 minutes to close out the contest, according to ClutchPoints. The result carried extra weight because Oliynykova had been the one to end Eala’s run earlier this season — the pair met on clay at the Strasbourg Open in France last May, where the Ukrainian, ranked No. 46 in the world, prevailed in three sets in what was their first career meeting.
Any suggestion of a repeat evaporated quickly. Eala reeled off the opening nine points and opened up a 4-0 cushion before Oliynykova finally landed on the scoreboard. That early cushion proved more than enough, and Eala closed out the first set without further trouble.
The second set gave Oliynykova a glimmer. She took the opening game and eventually clawed level at 3-all, but Eala answered with consecutive games to move ahead 5-3. Oliynykova pulled one back to 5-4, only for Eala to serve out the following game and end the match.
Reaching the round of 32 pushes the Filipina past her showing at the same event a year ago, when she made her breakthrough by becoming the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam main-draw match in the Open Era before bowing out in the second round.
Eala pointed to her composure as the deciding factor. “I think my patience and the consistency of my focus — I think that was the key to winning the match today,” she said in her on-court interview.
Waiting in the next round is either American Iva Jovic or Briton Francesca Jones, per Reuters, as Eala looks to extend a hard-court stretch that already includes her maiden WTA Tour title in Washington, D.C.
