Four times, Alex Eala was on the cusp of earning her and her country’s first WTA crown ever. But nemesis Maya Joint, touted as a successor to Aussie great Ashm Barty, was simply resilient.
The 19-year-old U.S.-born Australian fought back through four championship points and a 2-5 dearth in the final set tiebreaker to deny the rising star Filipina her maiden WTA title in perhaps women’s tennis match of the year, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (12-10) to grab the 2025 Eastbourne Open on Saturday’s final in England.
Aside from clawing back from 2-5, Joint, champion of the 2025 Morocco Open in singles and doubles and the youngest Australian winner of a WTA 1000 match, scored three straight points to finish first-time main tour finalist Eala on sudden death, started by two service breaks on Eala and concluded by a powerful crosscourt backhand winner for her second career title.
Despite this heartbreak, Eala, a three-time Grand Slam juniors champion, has finally proven her ability to contend for a main tour title at 20 years old.
“It’s my first WTA final and yeah, it’s a big deal for me and, you know, for my country too. It’s historic and for the first time any Filipina has made it here,” said a teary Eala at the trophy ceremony.
Starting flat at 0-3 due to Joint’s powerful serves, Eala clawed back by winning on long rallies but fell short, 4-6, in the opening set.
Breaking Joint’s serve in the first game of the second set, Eala was more accurate on the service line, winning all her six second serve points in the set and again grinding Joint with her mastery of long rallies.
Battling an erratic service game extending to the third set, Joint nonetheless fought back from a 0-2 deficit to win four straight games, owing to Eala’s errors.
Eala, however, broke Joint’s serve in the eighth game to tie the set and the two held their respective serves leading to the tiebreaker.
Despite getting the better of Joint’s serve midway in the tiebreaker, Eala failed to seal the deal despite earning four championship points, with Joint scoring three title saving points on two occasions–at 4-6 and 9-10.
That ended Eala’s career-best campaign on grass which included a repeat on Latvian great Jelena Ostapenko, wins over WTA champs Zeynep Sönmez, Hailey Baptiste, Lucia Bronzetti, and Dayana Yastremska, and a semis grinder against underdog Varvara Gracheva of France.
Consequently, Eala has climbed up 18 notches to a career-high 56th place in the WTA world ranking, becoming the fourth highest ranked Southeast Asian in WTA singles history.
“It’s only the first. I’ll definitely work hard and do more. Wimbledon is next week so hopefully I’ll forget about this match soon,” Eala concluded.
Eala will have her Wimbledon main draw debut on Tuesday against defending champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic.
(Photo from Eastbourne Open official broadcast)
