What Alex Eala did in D.C. was SCARY

Alex Eala capped off a stellar D.C. Open tournament after toppling Jessica Pegula for her maiden WTA title. Eala defeated the No. 1, 2, and 3 seeds en route to trophy, cementing her debut title run as one of the most iconic in recent memory.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I remember being at the DC Open Draw ceremony over a week ago at this point, and almost everyone's eyes were fixated on where the star of the tournament, Alex Yala, would land. I can still hear those gasps from the crowd when Alex drew Junction win in round one, with the winner likely to face defending champion Layla Fernandez in round two. Admittedly, I didn't think Alex would go that deep in the tournament, not so much because of the draw, I mean a little bit because of the draw, but because Alex had just pulled out of doubles alongside Venus Williams just hours before, raising questions about her health. But today, Alex shut down pretty much any doubt in anyone's mind about her and her abilities after capping off a historic run in DC when she toppled the top seed Jessica Bagula 46646 Love for her maiden WTA tour level singles title. Alex also makes history as the first player from the Philippines to achieve this feat. Yala, who cracks the top 20 now, had to slay the biggest giants possible in DC, knocking out the number one, two, and three seeds consecutively to get to the title. I'll analyze just how Alex was able to do the unthinkable. Plus, I'll touch on Taylor Fritz's win and the improbable victory of Christina Lutova in Memphis. Hello, my name is Christian Bass Knight, and welcome to Christian's Court where I cover tennis from all angles. If you've not yet already, make sure you subscribe and click that notification bell so you're notified whenever I post my next tennis update video, Christian's Court Report. So Pagula was leading this final 6-4-1-2 when the rains came, and play was suspended for the rest of the day on Sunday, and it wouldn't resume until Monday at noon. And I felt that this suspension of play would aid Alex more than Jessica. I mean, Jessica still had the momentum, even though she was trailing in the second set, it was still on serve. But the suspension of play, I think, also enabled Alex to rest more and regroup and come up with a better strategy. Now, in the first set, kind of talking about how that played out, Alex played well in the initial stages of the match. She had two breakpoints at 3-4 to go up 5-3 in the opening set, but Jesse was clutch and saved those break points and she stormed to clinch the opening set. And by the time of the stoppage, Jesse hit 14 winners, 20 unforced errors. Alex also hit 20 unforced errors, but hit 10 fewer winners. But I felt like Alex came out with an even more aggressive intent today. And Tennis Channel showed a stat graphic that indicated Alex hitting her ground strokes about five to six miles per hour faster than she did the day prior. But what stood out to me the most was Alex's dominance behind her serve. And it was similar to her semifinal victory over Naomi Osaka because she won a lot more points behind her serve compared to the big serving Japanese woman, which was surprising to me. But today against Pagula, Alex won 100% of her first serve points in the second set, which is incredible. She didn't drop a single point on serve in that set. And then she lost just two points behind her first serve in the third set. And Pagula said in her post-match press conference that she didn't return as well on a Monday as she did on Sunday because she felt that she didn't have her rhythm overall. And at four all in the second set, Pagula missed three returns in a row badly. Like I was shocked. But the world number three also acknowledged that while Iyala does not have the biggest serve, her leftiness makes it just a tricky serve for her to return. She's tricky to play against, Pagula said. She's a lefty, she hits the ball well, and she kind of baits you with her lefty serve. And in my last video, I spoke about how Naomi struggled to attack Ayala's serve, and that oftentimes Osaka found herself on the defensive even when she was returning Alex's serve, because Alex does such a great job of immediately pouncing and stepping up and applying pressure off of her opponent's returns. And she did this exact same thing here against Pagula. I think Alex did a great job of targeting the middle of the court, especially in the second set. She also targeted the Pagula forehand a lot, which broke down a lot in set number two. And she also was able to pull Pagula wide on the at side and draw some more backhand errors. And speaking of the backhand, the backhand went from worse to worse for Pagula in the third set. Without a doubt, Jessica played poorly in that final set. She made so many unforced errors, 18 in total compared to just five winners. And she just completely went off the rails. It was quite shocking to see her like go down that much because she's such an even killed player. She was definitely frustrated. She didn't do too much as far as the frustration was concerned, but she just seemed rattled and it was like nothing that she could do. Alex was like a freight train. And especially that four love game in the third set still stands out to me because in that game, all four points that Bagula lost were from return errors. Like just some really she could not make a single return in court, a few really bad strengths as well. And it's just been crazy to me how this entire tournament, Alex has broken down her opponents and just surged her way to victory. And the level dip from the players is insane. I mean, I witnessed it live in her opening round match against Jung Chun Win when Chin Wen was in firm control of the match, was up a set and a break at 4-3, but she lost the last nine of 10 games after being up that set and a break. And then Layla, she was up 5-1 in the second set, and Alex won it in a tie break. And Layla said that she kind of just went away with went away from her tactics in that match. Swiftalina let 3-1 in the second set, but only won just a single game after that. And then Alex against Naomi Osaka, she won the last nine of 11 games, and Naomi just really imploded in a way that was very similar to Pagula. And you expect that more from Osaka because we've seen that from her, but you don't really see Pagula go off like that. It was quite jarring, and without a doubt, Alex has brought out the worst in her opponents this past week, especially in the latter stages of the matches. I definitely think the crowd plays a role in this, and it for sure helps Alex. Jessica said after the match that she was kind of in her own world and that the crowd didn't impact her too much. But I think definitely Alex uses the crowd as fuel, and she's such a great momentum player, too. And she was locked in in that final set. She, like Pagula, hit five winners, but she committed just two unforced errors. And I said it before, but it's like she competes like Novad Djokovic does in tie breaks, just rarely misses. And she it's not like she was just pushing and stuff. I think also a lot of it, too, was just Pagula was giving her a lot of unforced errors early in the rallies. But she was aggressive, she kept going for her down-the-line shots, and those down-the-line shots were impeccable. And again, I'm repeating myself from the last video, but Alex's ability to change direction up the line is so effective because it catches opponents off guard. Opponents are not used to players going down the line that early in rallies and having that much success with it. But I also think that Pagula was onto something when she mentioned how tough Alex's serve is to return. Because I felt like you truly have to lock in and focus when returning that serve. It's because of the slice, and then also still the second serve can be a little bit challenging because you're generating your own pace. Sometimes a bigger server, that serve can be easier to return because you're just reacting. But with Alex's serve, you have to think about it a little bit more. And we've seen a lot of players spray a lot of return errors when Alex has those comebacks later on in these sets. So I definitely think it's a mental thing. I think maybe a strategy that the players could have done a little bit better was incorporate maybe like a chip in charge off of their returns and come in. We really didn't see that much at all of players hitting the return and just coming in. Maybe that's because they aren't as comfortable at the net or they respect Alex and her passing shots too much. But I'd say return up the middle two to take away her angles and then see what happens. That's what I would have done. But it's obviously easier said than done. I think it'll be interesting because as Alex keeps winning, she'll be more confident and thus will be even more dangerous. But I think also more people will figure out just the right way how to play her. And I think Layla Fernandez, another lefty player who kind of plays similarly to Alex, ran into that problem for a little bit after her breakout run to the US Open Finals in 2021. But Alex is also a confidence-based player. Maybe you can say the same thing about Layla. Klay still might be a bit of a struggle for her, but I still think, regardless, she lives for the big moments. And now she's on a win streak of five top 10 wins in a row. She has an impeccable 9-4 record against top 10 players. But really, she soon could be a top 10 player herself, as she will crack the top 20 as a result of this win. She also isn't defending that many points for the rest of the year. If she has a good run of the US Open, why not her crack the top 10 by the end of the year? I mean, that's not too crazy considering how she made just the second round at the US Open last year, and a lot of players ranked above her are defending a lot more points than she is. But on a personal note, I must say it was really nice and it feels special for me to have been able to witness the start of this historic run in person. As of course I cover the tournament for you know the first few days. Her fight, just watching her live, her fight is so inspiring. She truly never gives up. Her problem-solving capabilities are just up there. And just to also see how firsthand, the way that she shaped tennis and has inspired so many people, especially Filipino fans, is beautiful. And I spoke with my friend Harrison Lee, who I actually played tennis with growing growing up. He was a hitting partner for a lot of players in this tournament, and he also had the opportunity to hit with Alex. And I spoke with him after hitting with Alex, and he spoke to her impact and the way that she is just helping grow tennis. So here's what he had to say about that.

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There's so many Filipinos on the ground. The sense of community is just unlike anything I've ever seen before. Yeah, compared to last year when Alex wasn't here, and and now it it's like a whole new fan base here, and it's it's really exciting to see.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

But Alex, she was asked about the history of it all after the match and what she's achieved for her country, and she responded by just highlighting what it meant for her personally. And that's what I'm choosing to focus on at the end of this part of the video. Because for her to be just 21 years old still, to win her maiden title at a 500-level event, beating the top three seeds, that's phenomenal. Not to mention the defending champion Layla Fernandez and Olympic gold medalist Junction win. And also her composure, too, after not capitalizing um on match points, on championship points, and her prior W-Tay tour level final in esport against my joint. She did win two 125 titles after that espawn loss, which I do think helped, but still a 125 and a tour-level title or two-level final, especially at a 500 level, those are two completely different things. So just the utmost praise and respect and admiration for Alex. You definitely quieted a lot of critics. I know the critics will still be there because they're misogynistic. Anytime a star, a woman's tennis star, does their stuff, pops their ish, they there are gonna be some negative people out there. But regardless, Alex, I don't have the chain, but in lieu of the official, you know, my official baddie's chain, I don't want to give her this. Here's some glasses. Baddie, these are your baddie chains. You can wear the chain like this for now until we get your chain printed out. But yeah, congratulations to Alex. Now, after Alex lifted her first tour level title, Taylor Fritz lifted his 11th and first of 2026 with a 7-6-6-4 victory over 19-year-old Rafa Hodar. This was a serve dominant opening set from both guys, and both Taylor and Rafa had one break point each early on in the match, which they both erased with service winners. And Taylor played a flawless opening set tie break. He made all five of his first serves and won all of his service points too, and he dropped just three total first serve points in the opening set. And Fritz also produced some solid returns to win two points off of Hodar's return to seal to help him seal the opening set. And Taylor started the second set in a similar vein of just excellent returning, just able to get it back deep on the young Spaniard. Rafa was unable to capitalize on three game points in the opening game of the second set and got broken. And Rafa found it difficult to impose himself even behind his serve. Fritz was was returning that well and was able to get to neutral, and he used his forehand to almost bully Hodar at times. Taylor brook at love for a double break three love lead, and it felt like it was a wrap at this point. But credit to Hodar for making Fritz really earn that win, and he got it back to just one break deficit. Rafa saved four championship points at 5-4, and he had a break point to himself to bring it to five all, but he netted a backhand down the line. And then the following point, he fumbled a pretty good sitter cross-court forehand, and Fritz was able to make it across the finish line. And Taylor, who admitted in his post-match press conference that he got tight in the closing times of this match, now lifts his biggest title since Tokyo 2022, and he will rise to number eight in the world. So big congrats to Taylor. I know this was definitely he probably felt like it was long overdue him winning a title at this level, but just a title period, because it had been a minute. So very well deserved. And I'm glad he was able to at least lift one title this season before it wraps. Now, Taylor was not the only title winner from this past week. Arthur G from France lifted his first ATP title in Los Cabos when he defeated defending champion Dennis Shapovalov 6'3. And then on the WTA side, Christina Lutova became the youngest active player on the WTA tour to win a tour-level singles title. She came through qualifying at the inaugural Memphis 250 before defeating Daria Vidbanova 166163. This is truly a miraculous moment because this was Christina's first Toro level tournament. And she's the second youngest ever woman to win her debut tournament since Mariana Lucic won Bowl in 1997 at just 15 years old. But Liutova was ranked 229th at the start of the tournament and now rises to number 126. She won her second round qualities match, 7'6 in the third set, and she got a retirement win over top CD Katarina Alexandrova while leading 5'4 in the third set, and that was like a three-plus hour match. She also beat my joint in three sets in round two, and she got by Katie McNally the number six seed, six, three, six, four in the quarterfinals. For sure, one of the stories of the year. Admittedly, I didn't really see too much of Lutova throughout this week as I was mainly focused on DC. But I I think definitely we'll have to keep an eye out for her. The fact that she achieved this. However, I am proceeding with caution because we've seen, you know, a lot of not a lot, but a few young players burst onto the scene and achieve really great results, but not be able to back it up a little bit. So we'll see what she can do. But definitely congratulations to all the title winners, especially Lutova, for that win. I also want to talk about some pretty big news in that Serena and Venus are confirmed to be returning to play doubles. That's at the Cincinnati Open as they were awarded a women's doubles wildcard. So this will be the first time that they played doubles since the 2022 US Open. Venus was awarded a singles wild card. So we'll see if she can break her 13 at a singles losing streak. And then alongside Venus is another American Tony Stevens, and then there's another American Taylor Towns and Carolina Hyde, and then Alina. And then Louisville was also awarded a singles wild card. And then the other winner had a line. And then according to Carlin's a lot, uh offensive is that there's no card in the singles, and then the main drawing and qualifying that have yet to be awarded. So maybe the Serena plays in the singles too. That's not all for the cards. But we'll see what happens. That's all I'll say for that. But that is all I have for this video. I know I promised that I would do a Canadian Open men's preview, but you know, I'm flying to Canada tomorrow morning to cover Toronto, and my flight leaves at like six in the morning, so I'm just I don't have quite the time. And between me and y'all, I haven't even packed yet. So I I've tried to be responsible and cut down on this video. But let me know your thoughts on Alex's incredible run to the DC Open title. Has she changed how you view her? Definitely for me, I have even more respect for her, and I feel like again, she is here to stay as at least a top 20 player. Also give your thoughts on the other title winners and make sure you subscribe and click that notification bell so you're notified whenever I post my updates from my time in Toronto. But thank you all so much for watching and for your support. And I'll see y'all next time here on Christian's Court.