{"id":561569,"date":"2026-03-24T17:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/561569\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T17:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:38:14","slug":"alex-eala-told-to-dramatically-improve-one-area-after-early-exit-from-miami-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/561569\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Eala told to \u2018dramatically improve\u2019 one area after early exit from Miami Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karolina Muchova ended Alex Eala\u2019s impressive start to the Miami Open on Monday, bringing her run to an abrupt close.<\/p>\n

Eala had looked strong early in the tournament, picking up wins over Laura Siegemund and Magda Linette that gave her a real boost of confidence.<\/p>\n

But Muchova, ranked 14th in the world, proved a different challenge entirely. She overpowered Eala 6-0, 6-2 in exactly one hour, making it clear from the outset who was in control.<\/p>\n

Muchova dominated with her serve throughout the match, winning 80 percent of points on both first and second serves\u2014a level of consistency that left Eala struggling to keep up.<\/p>\n

During the match coverage, Coco Gauff\u2019s former coach pointed out areas where Eala will need to develop if she wants to compete with top-tier players like Muchova more consistently in future tournaments.<\/p>\n

Brad Gilbert believes Alex Eala needs to work on her serve\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Brad Gilbert, the former coach of Andy Murray, Andre Agassi and Coco Gauff, is one of the most successful and well-respected coaches in tennis history.<\/p>\n

The American, who played a starring role in the success of Andre Agassi during the 1990s, paid close attention to Alex Eala\u2019s match against Karolina Muchova on Monday.<\/p>\n

While Eala was trailing 0-6, 0-3 to the Czech star, Gilbert identified the Filipina\u2019s serve as an area that requires significant improvement moving forwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuchova [is] all over Eala, 9-0,\u201d Gilbert said in a post on X [formerly Twitter].<\/p>\n

\u201cFor someone of her height and especially being lefty needs to dramatically improve first and second serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite her struggles on serve against Muchova, Eala has proven herself to be an exceptional ball striker over recent years.<\/p>\n

Eala will have time off before her next event, giving her a chance to rest up and work on areas that need improvement. She\u2019ll be back in action in two weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

Eala set to play next at the Linz Open<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Eala is expected to make her next appearance at the Linz Open, scheduled for 6-12 April.<\/p>\n

The tournament was first played in 1991 as a Tier Five event, with Manuela Maleeva-Fragni\u00e8re taking the inaugural title.<\/p>\n

The event has grown in prestige over time and will be held as a WTA 500 event for the first time in 2024.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s field includes Barbora Krejcikova, Emma Navarro and Daria Kasatkina, alongside returning champion Ekaterina Alexandrova.<\/p>\n

Eala will be hoping for a strong showing after losing significant ranking points in Miami. She is projected to drop 16 spots to world number 45 following her recent defeat.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karolina Muchova ended Alex Eala\u2019s impressive start to the Miami Open on Monday, bringing her run to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[5100,7784,3581,64,63,52246,18937,77279,7795,85,747],"class_list":["post-561569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alex-eala","tag-andre-agassi","tag-andy-murray","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brad-gilbert","tag-coco-gauff","tag-karolina-muchova","tag-miami-open","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}