Down a set to the Australian, the Filipino world No. 20 won the last nine games and set up a rematch with the player who knocked her out of Ningbo last week.
Alex Eala lost the first set to Talia Gibson on Wednesday night in Tokyo, then won 12 of the last 14 games. She beat the Australian 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 at the Ariake Coliseum to reach the quarterfinals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open. It is her first WTA quarterfinal since August 1, when she won her first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) title at the Washington Open.
“I think really staying in the match, never giving up, the first set was difficult and I had my chances so I knew that if I kept my concentration I would have more chances,” Eala said afterward, when asked what won her the match.
Alex Eala came to Tokyo after a rough stretch in Asia. She lost in the round of 16 at the Singapore Open. In Wuhan she won the first set against qualifier Han Shi, then lost the match. In Ningbo she beat Diane Parry in the first round, then saved six match points before losing to Diana Shnaider. At the Asian Games in Nagoya she settled for bronze.
The Toray Pan Pacific Open is a WTA 500 event, one level below the tour’s WTA 1000 tournaments. It is her final event at that level this season and her first WTA tournament in Tokyo. She had played there only on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) circuit, the tier below the main tour.
A 75-Minute Opener
Eala is ranked No. 20 in the world and seeded eighth. She opened on Monday, October 26 against Mika Stojsavljevic, a 17-year-old British wild card ranked No. 308. Eala won 6-1, 6-2 in 75 minutes and led the first set 5-0 before Stojsavljevic held serve. Stojsavljevic hit 24 winners to Eala’s eight but made 41 unforced errors. Eala won 72 percent of her first-serve points. She faced break points in only one game, at 0-40 early in the second set, and saved all three.
“I’m sure we will meet many, many more times,” Eala said of the teenager after the match.
The Opponent She Had Beaten Twice
Her round-of-16 opponent, Talia Gibson of Australia, is ranked No. 38. She reached the final of the Singapore Open, the same event where Eala lost in the round of 16, and lost the final to Leylah Fernandez. In Tokyo she beat Daria Kasatkina 6-0, 7-5 in the first round. Eala had beaten Gibson twice before, both times on the ITF circuit. She won 6-3, 6-1 in Palma del Río, Spain in June 2023, and came from a set down to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in Aldershot, England. Wednesday’s match was their first meeting on the WTA Tour.
A Set Down, Then Nine Straight Games
Early on, it looked like another Asian-swing exit. The first set was level at 3-all before Gibson pulled ahead 5-3. She broke Eala twice in the set, the second time to close it out 6-4.
Eala went up 2-0 in the second set. Gibson won two of the next three games to stay close at 3-2, and that was the last game she won. Eala took the next three to level the match at a set apiece, then raced to 5-0 in the third, dropping only six points along the way. Gibson made one last stand as Eala served for the match, earning two break points and winning the longest rally of the night to force deuce. Eala saved both and closed it out on a Gibson error.
Gibson hit more winners, 32 to Eala’s 29, but she also made 47 unforced errors to Eala’s 21. Eala served nine aces to Gibson’s five, converted six of her nine break points while Gibson converted two of six, and won 86 points to Gibson’s 66.
What’s Next
The quarterfinal is a rematch. Eala plays Diana Shnaider of Russia, ranked No. 13, on Friday, October 30. Shnaider beat Eala 7-5, 6-4 in Ningbo last week, and reached the Tokyo quarterfinals by beating Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. A quarterfinal place is worth $33,475, about ₱2.1 million.
Eala had also entered the doubles with Desirae Krawczyk, the Filipino-American doubles specialist and four-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion. The pair withdrew before their opener against Hao-Ching Chan of Chinese Taipei and Miyu Kato of Japan after Krawczyk hurt her back, so Eala is playing singles only in Tokyo.
After Tokyo, Eala is scheduled to play the Hong Kong Tennis Open. On December 8 she plays an exhibition against Indonesia’s Janice Tjen at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan. Every ElysPlanet story on her is in the Alex Eala archive.