“Yalla, Eala!” the signs screamed at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, and Alex Eala delivered on cue, as if the desert night had personally requested a show.
The 20-year-old Filipina dismissed Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, 7-5, 6-4, to storm into the quarterfinals of the USD4-million Dubai Tennis Championships, stretching what was already a feel-good week into something bordering on cinematic.
Cirstea, 35, ranked No. 32 and armed with a résumé that includes a career-high top-20 ranking and serious Grand Slam mileage, won the toss and the opening point. Experience spoke first. Eala answered quickly, holding serve and breaking for a 2-1 edge. Respectful nod. Then the real hitting began.
The first set morphed into a tightrope walk with no safety net. At 5-4, Cirstea hovered at the brink, perhaps replaying their previous three-set clash where she had prevailed and sensing history might politely repeat itself. She even changed rackets, as if a fresh set of strings could restring the past.
Eala, however, had no appetite for sequels. Like an Arabian thoroughbred finally shown daylight, she surged ahead and devoured three straight games, transforming defense into defiance with exhilarating ease. She stepped boldly inside the baseline, took her forehands early and on the rise, knifed slices that skidded wickedly at ankle height, and turned grinding rallies into punctuation marks. In a blink, the scoreboard read, 7-5.
The crowd erupted, flags swaying in rhythmic approval, and a jubilant “Yalla! (Let’s go!)” rang through the warm Dubai night as if the desert itself had taken up her cause. Then came the wave, that rolling ribbon of raised arms more common in packed baseball and basketball arenas, sweeping across the stadium and, one imagines, cresting all the way across the sea to bleary-eyed fans in Manila.
The second set became an Eala masterclass with occasional Romanian resistance. Her serve, once whispered about as a vulnerability, now thundered past 150 kilometers per hour. She won 69 percent of first-serve points and 82 percent of service games, converting four of nine break opportunities. Cirstea mounted one last push at 4-5, but Eala refused to blink, slamming the door before midnight in Dubai and well past bedtime in Manila.
The late start owed much to Coco Gauff, whose 2-hour, 18-minute three-set win delayed proceedings. The 21-year-old Gauff grinned and told the crowd in her post-game interview: “I know you guys are probably here for Alex [Eala], so I’m sorry to make you wait! But if I’m not mistaken, I think some of you guys were cheering for me, so I appreciate it a lot.”
Eala and Gauff, ranked No. 4 in the world, will square off in the quarterfinals.
When it was finally her turn to speak, Eala glowed. “This (win) is super special…I’m really happy with how I performed and I’m really happy to share it with all of you,” she said. “The waves of support have really just made every single match all the more special… I’m really grateful to be here. Salamat sa pagpupuyat mga kababayan. Uwi na tayo, tara!”
Ranked No. 47 after a recent slide, Eala is now flirting with a top-30 breakthrough. In Dubai, the nights are long, the lights are bright, and apparently, so is her future.
