No rest for the weary champion.
With only a day of breather, newly crowned Birmingham queen Alex Eala plunges back to action in the HSBC Championships at the Queen’s Club in London as part of her long build-up for Wimbledon from June 29 to July 12.
And Eala will be in for a baptism of fire after her promotion to the main draw, crossing paths with two-time doubles Grand Slam champion Shuai Zhang of China.
Eala, on the heels of her second pro title conquest at the WTA125 Lexus Birmingham Open on Sunday night, will look for a grand follow-up in the 500-level tour tentatively set at 5 p.m. Tuesday (Manila time).
The HSBC Championships, one of the oldest grass tournaments in the world founded in 1889, is also known as the Queen’s Club Championships, where Eala advanced into the main draw as a late replacement.
From a qualifier, the 21-year-old Filipina got the nod in lieu of Jessica Pegula and Hailey Baptiste of the United States, who withdrew due to injuries. The other replacement is Karolina Pliskova of Czechia.
Eala will march onto another grass queendom with an all-time high momentum and morale after winning her first grass title in the nearby Birmingham via 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 squeaker against Czechia’s Nikola Bartunkova.
It’s Eala’s first win against any Czech player in her blooming career, going winless in her first 13 attempts.
The top-seed Pinay nearly fell short from solving that Czech puzzle by wasting a 5-4 lead in the first set and squandering two championship points to escape with the win in two hours and 37 minutes for her second title that should serve handy in her bid at the bigger and tougher Queens Club field.
Eala’s first diadem was in the WTA125 Guadalajara Open in Mexico.
“It’s one of those days where a little bit of luck and intention was what got me through. I’m motivated to keep working,’ said Eala, who celebrated her feat with a late-dinner sandwich at her hotel before a quick windup to London.
At the Queen’s Club, Eala faces a stacked field led by world No. 2 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, No. 5 Amanda Anisimova of the United States, No. 9 Victoria Mboko of Canada, No. 11 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and her good friend Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, who reached the semifinals of the just-concluded French Open to climb to No. 12.
Eala improved to No. 33 from No. 37 as per the WTA rankings update Monday after the French Open and the Birmingham Open, coupled by a $33,650 (more than P2 million) grand prize.
And just like in Birmingham, Eala is counting on the strength of the Filipino crowd once more in London.
‘I like to say home is a people, not a place,’ beamed Eala, who also looks forward to teaming up with former World No. 1 and seven-time Grand Slam champion champion Venus Williams in the WTA500 Bad Homburg Open from June 21-27 in Germany for a historic partnership.