August 25, 2025<\/p>\n
MANILA \u2013 Alex Eala continued to make history on the courts of New York.<\/p>\n
Eala took down World No. 15 Clara Tauson of Denmark in an epic first-round battle in the 2025 US Open, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (13-11), early Monday (Philippine time).<\/p>\n
LIVE: Alex Eala vs Clara Tauson \u2013 US Open 2025 first round<\/a><\/p>\n She became the first Filipino to win a match at a Grand Slam singles tournament in the Open era, ending her string of first-round exits since entering the main draws.<\/p>\n Eala also won her first Grand Slam in the juniors division at Flushing Meadows when she ruled the 2022 US Open girls singles tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Filipino tennis ace, ranked 75th in the world, showcased grit like no other as she battled back from a 5-1 deficit in the deciding third set to force the tiebreak.<\/p>\n Buoyed by the predominantly Filipino crowd at the Grandstand court, Eala powered her way through tiebreak, even with the big-hitting Tauson erasing her 8-4 advantage.<\/p>\n After four match points, Eala finally got her breakthrough as she slumped to the court in tears.<\/p>\n READ: Alex Eala feels \u2018so blessed\u2019 to represent Filipinos in US Open<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was so, so difficult. I was so happy I was able to dig deep and push the limit, physically and mentally. This was it,\u201d Eala said during her oncourt interview.<\/p>\n Eala acknowledged the crowd that filled the stadium to the brim, giving her a massive boost against a tough opponent like Tauson, who has already won three WTA titles at age 22.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so special. They [the crowd] make me more and more special to be a Filipino. It\u2019s something I take so much pride in,\u201d Eala said.<\/p>\n Eala started out the match swinging, breaking Tauson\u2019s serve twice in the first set to win, 6-3. But Tauson, after complaining twice to the umpire about the noise from the crowd during the point in Set 1, found her footing and composure to tie the match.<\/p>\n Tauson continued her onslaught in the deciding set, winning five straight games to move within the cusp of advancing before Eala slowly but surely chipped away at Tauson\u2019s lead with five unanswered wins to even take the lead, 6-5, before the tiebreak.<\/p>\n This was Eala\u2019s third straight match that went the distance since making the main draw of the Grand Slams after her French Open<\/a> and Wimbledon<\/a> debuts, but she made sure to flip the script this time around.<\/p>\n And she\u2019s looking to make more history as she advances to the second round.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always in the mood for more history. This match is one for the books for me,\u201d Eala said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 25, 2025 MANILA \u2013 Alex Eala continued to make history on the courts of New York. Eala…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-93890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93890","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=93890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}