EALA FALTERS IN AUSTRALIAN OPEN FIRST ROUND

FILIPINO tennis ace Alex Eala bowed to American Alycia Parks, 6-0, 3-6, 2-6, in her main draw debut at the Australian Open at the Melbourne Park Court 6 on Monday.

World No. 49 Eala failed to sustain her dominant start as 99th ranked Parks fought back to capture the second and third sets and advance to the round of 64.

Parks will face Czech Karolina Muchova in the second round on Wednesday.

Eala broke Parks’ serve after seven deuces in the first game and went on to sweep the American in the first set.

The 25-year-old Parks, however, came back in the second and controlled the match until the third frame, where she zoomed to a 5-2 game lead and held two match points.

The 20-year-old Eala saved both and even gained a break point albeit Parks won in consecutive games to clinch the match after an Eala return that went long.

Parks thus held serve which proved to be one of her biggest weapons against Eala, who only has one ace compared to her opponent’s 12.

Eala headed out and thanked the Filipino diaspora that gave her a de facto home game in Australia.

Despite the quick exit, Eala pocketed a prize winning of $150,000 AUD or roughly P5.9 million for her first round appearance.

Eala has played in the qualifying event of the Australian Open in the previous years but failed to advance in the main draw.

Her standing as the No. 49 player in the world assured her of a place in the main tournament this year.

Eala, however, did not gain in the live rankings as she stayed in 49th place with a total of 1159 ranking points.

Eala’s campaign in the first major of the year is not over yet as she teams up with Brazilian Ingrid Martins in the doubles event.

Eala and Martins face the Polish-Japanese tandem of Magda Linette and Shuko Aoyama in the first round on Tuesday.

Eala and Martins are secured to share a prize money of $44,000 AUD or more than P1.7 million for a first round appearance.

2026-01-19T16:14:45Z