Alex Eala: Fans make me "feel at home"

Asked about competing in front of the Dubai crowd for the first time, the 20-year-old made it clear she’s going to relish the opportunity.

Talking on the support, she said: “It means a lot, it makes me feel at home even though I’m traveling so many weeks of the year.

“I think this feeling is reciprocated for a lot of the Filipino’s who are out here, I know there’s a huge population of them here in the Middle East. I think it means a lot for people to see themselves in other people and that’s what makes this so special.”

After opening her campaign with a straight-sets win against Zeynep Sonmez, the Filipina faced Sasnovich in the Round of 16 and was set for defeat after dropping the first set 2–6 and falling 4–0 behind in the decider. Sasnovich even held match point, but Eala showed tremendous resilience, battling back to level the set and eventually sealing a dramatic 7–5 win in the deciding tiebreak to reach the quarter-finals.

Her impressive run ended there, however, as she was beaten 6–3, 6–3 by second seed Ekaterina Alexandrova. Despite the quarter-final exit, Eala’s fighting display in Abu Dhabi underlined her growing confidence and competitiveness on the WTA Tour.

She heads into Dubai fresh off the back of the WTA 1000 event in Qatar, although her run was short-lived. Despite coming in on the back of a career-high ranking and growing confidence from her strong showing in Abu Dhabi. After entering the tournament’s main draw, she faced Czech player, Tereza Valentova in the first round. Eala put up a competitive fight in the opening set, which went to a close tiebreak, but ultimately lost 7-6(6), 6-1, bringing her Qatar campaign to an end in the opening round.

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