Under the stone-cold gaze of the marble statues surrounding Pietrangeli Court, Alex Eala authored another chapter in her increasingly fearless European clay campaign—this time with a side of revenge.
The 20-year-old Filipina rallied past China’s Wang Xinyu, 6-4, 6-3, to punch her ticket to the Round of 32 of the Italian Open, one of the WTA Tour’s most prestigious 1000-level tournaments carrying a massive USD9.7 million prize pool and valuable ranking points ahead of Roland Garros.
For a few uneasy minutes, though, Rome looked less like a holiday and more like trouble.
Wang, seeded 31st, burst out of the gates with ruthless precision, taking the first three games and forcing Eala into hurried shots and uncomfortable rallies. The Chinese star looked every bit the higher seed, dictating points with deep groundstrokes and sharp angles.
Then Eala found her clay-court compass.
The Filipina slowed the match to her rhythm, sliding into shots with growing confidence and turning defense into attack with the kind of patience clay rewards. Four straight games later, Wang’s early dominance had evaporated into Roman dust.
By the end of the first set, Eala had completely changed the narrative.
The second set became a stylish exchange of weapons: blistering forehands, wicked backhands, feather-soft drop shots, and daring down-the-line winners. At times, the rallies felt less like tennis and more like a duel staged for the statues watching overhead.
But Eala blinked less.
The win also carried emotional weight. Wang had denied Eala a finals berth at the ASB Classic in January, making the Italian Open triumph a neatly packaged bit of sporting payback.
More significantly, it reinforced Eala’s growing comfort on clay and her steady rise against elite competition. Now ranked World No. 42, she is increasingly looking less like a breakthrough story and more like a genuine tour threat.
Eala will meet in the third round the winner of the match between former World No. 3 Maria Sakkari or current World No. 2 Elena Rybakina—another steep Roman exam under the statues.
