If you start to believe the hype about yourself, then you start to lose the bigger picture, and your focus is in the wrong place.
—English musician Justin Chancellor
The clay-court season has been harsh for Filipina tennis sensation Alexandra “Alex” Eala, with just four wins to show across five tournaments played. And like the rest of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour, she has learned her fate with the draw completed for the upcoming Roland Garros tournament.
With thrilling matchups thrown up in the very first round, the draw has not been kind to Eala as she is pitted against yet another young sensation—but one with far more pedigree.
Despite this, tennis fans from the Philippines are all eyes on their 20-year-old rising star, who will fly the flag in the Grand Slam event to be staged at the prestigious Stade Roland Garros in the French capital beginning on Sunday, May 24, through June 7.
With that in mind, her full projected draw for this year’s French Open, which will be just her second appearance in the tournament’s main draw, presents a tough run that would really test her mettle on the clay court.
The truth is that if she is to win just one match at Roland Garros this year, the country’s pride will have to get past her American rival Iva Jovic in the very first round of the tournament. And if she wins, she will then likely be greeted by another tough opponent in the person of Emma Navarro, also of the United States.
Then in the third round, Japanese ace Naomi Osaka is expected to be waiting, just before Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka looms in this portion of the draw and is set to be a fourth-round opponent.
More worrisome are expected matches against American Jessica Pegula and Canada’s Victoria Mboko, the two highest seeds who could face Eala in the quarterfinals, with defending champion Coco Gauff an expected semifinalist.
And yet, looking at the other half of the draw, it could be anyone from Poland’s Iga Swiatek to Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, or maybe even Russia’s Mirra Andreeva or Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
In the meantime and in spite of the tough road ahead, our country’s pride has been practising already, specifically stepping up her play to reach the desired intensity to make it through the torrid draw presented to her.
Yet, reality shows that if she is to battle her way through even the first or second round, before she has to face someone like Sabalenka, she will have to turn her form around. After all, this clay-court season has been far from outstanding for Eala, with heartbreaking losses where she could have shown true form as a rising tennis player.
Her most recent defeat to Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova was arguably the most disappointing of the lot, having lost this opening-round match in Strasbourg despite winning the first set.
Still, Eala’s fans look to her with hope: “(. . .) She looks vulnerable on clay, thinks grass or hard court is her comfy surface, all the best to her, whatever happens in future she will always be my favorite.”
Another supporter remarked: “Sure she may have more fans than most players of her ranking, but she’s clearly very talented and great for the WTA Tour!”
But there were also those who had doubts: “Yeah, absolutely. She is more of an Anna Kournikova than real talent!”
For us, her hard-working and relentless play style should translate well on clay, but it simply hasn’t worked out for her yet. But if there is any place to turn it around, it should be here and now at Roland Garros.
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