Alexandra Eala rallies past Jessica Pegula to capture her first WTA singles title

WASHINGTON: Alexandra Eala’s breakthrough week at the DC Open lasted one day longer than anyone expected. By the time it ended, the Filipino expression written across the Nike T-shirt she had worn earlier that week had become a reality. "Once it grows, it cannot be stopped.” After the women’s final stretched across two days because of heavy rain, Eala rallied past Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 Monday to capture the first WTA Tour singles title of her career. The victory made the 21-year-old Eala the first Filipina to win a singles title on the tour, completing the same career-defining breakthrough that the Washington tournament once gave Pegula when she claimed her first WTA Tour title in 2019. Eala arrived at Stadium Court as the story of the tournament. The Filipina carried the hopes of a tennis nation. Philippine flags dotted the stands throughout Sunday’s rain-interrupted session, and chants for Eala routinely outweighed those for Pegula. It capped a week in which the rising star transformed the atmosphere around the tournament while reaching her first WTA Tour final in her debut at the hard-court tuneup for the U.S. Open. The two traded breaks midway through the opening set, with Pegula breaking again at 4-4 and serving out the set at love. The players held through the opening three games of the second set before heavy rain suspended play on Sunday afternoon, with Eala up 2-1. When they returned on Monday, the momentum belonged to Eala. She stormed back to claim the second set, then swept through the third. She won each game of the final set of the match to complete the comeback. In the process, she defeated all three of the tournament’s top seeds and turned the biggest week of her career into a historic first title.