Washington - Electric Eala breaks new ground

**Catherine** (0:12)
Well, hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast. Again, we are back again.
This time to talk about Washington, which has finally reached its conclusion after an absolutely miserable day of weather. On Sunday, the scheduled day for the two singles finals, the women's between Alexandra Eala and Jessica Pegula, and the men's between Taylor Fritz and Rafael Jodar. They came back on Monday. They had apparently the best atmosphere there's ever been for a Monday final. David was a very big person, and managed not to provocatively text Goran Isovich that quote.

**David** (0:53)
So far, the day is long yet. I think I might just, I mean, look, it was an amazing atmosphere, but some short memories there.

**Catherine** (1:05)
Yeah, it was fantastic. It wasn't full. I don't think anybody was expecting it necessarily to be full, but there were some tickets available on the gate, and it did seem like a good proportion of those went to the local Filipino population, and I don't think any of them would have regretted their choices because they got to see 21-year-old Alex Eala from the Philippines win her maiden WTA singles title with a comeback victory over the top seed, Jessica Pegula, 4-6, 6-4, 6-love, a match that was delayed overnight with Eala trailing by a set to love. And the victory over the top seed in the final makes it just the most extraordinary run to any title, quite frankly, let alone a maiden singles title. So she beat Junqin Wen in her opening match, dropped the opening set of that match, did Eala, then didn't lose another set on route to the final against Pegula. She beat Leila Fernandez, the defending champion. She beat Elena Svitolina and she beat Naomi Asaka, meaning she beat the top two seeds, the defending champion, a four-time major winner, and the reigning Olympic gold medallist to win, I'll say it again, her first WTA singles title. Talk about ticking off the milestones, Matt. It's safe to say Alex Eala is very much here, and by here, I mean at the top of the sport now.
She is a top 20 player as of right now.

**Matt** (2:45)
She is, and as you say, she keeps bamboozling the very, very top players. We've seen her beat Rebacca, and Svantec, and this run that she just had this week as well, adds to that, and she's got a win over Goff as well this year. I know it was by retirement, but it's still there.
And I think it's easy to underestimate her as a player. I think you can look at her serve, quite frankly, and think, well, surely the top players should be doing better against that shot. But at the moment, they're not. And one after another, her game, her lefty game, her unusual game is causing players so many problems. Add to that, I think she has an absolutely elite level return of serve. The way she has been just destroying players' serves this week, particularly Asakas, has been incredibly notable. Her ground strokes hold up so well. Plus, you get this incredible atmosphere and support at all of her matches, which surely gives her this boost because she handles it so well.
That you put all of that together and it becomes incredibly difficult, I think, for these players to actually face her.
And, you know, it's such a joy. Like she's changing the way the sport sounds and looks and feels. Like for one player to have that effect on the entire sport is really, really moving, I find. I think it must have been really hard for Jessica Pegula at home in a final, a tournament she's won before. And she comes back the next day and there's barely anyone in the stadium rooting for her. I thought in the match she handled it really poorly. And in the speech afterwards she handled it really well and said, what an amazing thing it is to witness and be part of when Eala is bringing in those fans. But yeah, like the top of the sport, there's a conundrum there that not many of them are solving right now, the awkwardness of Eala's game. And I think she's doing this thing of making them play poorly and raising her own game to heights that is kind of taking them aback. It's incredible to watch.

**Catherine** (5:21)
This is the thing, David, isn't it?
She's still so relatively new to this. And yet it feels to me, even before this title this week, which will only enhance this, but it feels to me like she's already got a bit of a locker room aura. You know, you can see players when they step up to the service line against her, they're thinking about what she can do on that return. There is a fear of the Eala return. There's a fear of the sound that a tennis match is going to bring when she steps onto the court. And maybe we'll talk in a moment about whether there's any risk of kind of second season syndrome for Eala and people getting used to all of that. And maybe unlocking the codes a little bit. I don't know the answer to that. But right now, it feels to me like there's a wariness of Alex Eala among the other players on tour.