Eala gets wildcard entry to Berlin Tennis Open
MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala gets a chance to stabilize her Wimbledon preparations right away after earning a wildcard in the Berlin Tennis Open next week.
The Berlin Tennis Open on Thursday announced Eala’s entry, giving her another tournament to refine her bearings before the queen of grass tournaments from June 29 to July 12 in London, on the heels of her early exit in the HSBC Championships in the same city the other day.
Eala was supposed to play only in the WTA500 Bad Homburg Open on June 21 to 27, also in Germany, where she’s set for a historic team-up with former world No. 1 and seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams in the doubles play.
That could have given her more than a week of rest but instead will dive back to action on Monday against a still-to-be-determined opponent.
Eala, WTA No. 33, will be in a for a tall order in Berlin filled with a stacked field led by newly-crowned French Open champion Mirra Andreeva of Russia (WTA No. 6), world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and world No. 2 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.
Also in are other top-ranked players Jessica Pegula (No. 4), Amanda Anisimova (No. 5) and Coco Gauff (No. 7) of the United States, Elina Svitolina (No. 8) of Ukraine Victoria Mboko (No. 9) of Canada and Karolina Muchova (No. 10) of Czechia.
Eala will come into Berlin brimming with vengeance mantra after bowing anew to her good American pal Iva Jovic, 6-2, 6-2, in Round 2 of the Queen’s Club Championships.
The 21-year-old Filipina was then riding on the momentum of her second pro title conquest, first in grass, at the WTA125 Birmingham Open but to no avail as she could not duplicate a 6-3, 6-2 win against Chinese Shuai Zhang in Round 1.
Eala snapped a long drought against Czech players after 13 straight foiled attempts with a 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 finale win against No. 61 Nikola Bartunkova.
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