{"id":522900,"date":"2026-03-08T17:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/522900\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T17:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:03:08","slug":"with-fans-behind-her-again-eala-wins-desert-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/522900\/","title":{"rendered":"With Fans Behind Her (Again), Eala Wins Desert Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a debut to remember for Alexandra Eala<\/a> in Tennis Paradise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With temperatures dipping in the desert and midnight approaching, Eala \u2014 and her now customary throng of fans \u2014 didn\u2019t go anywhere as her encounter with Dayana Yastremska<\/a> stretched close to three hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lefty from the Philippines persevered to beat the former Grand Slam semifinalist 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 and set up a rematch with another crowd favorite, Coco Gauff<\/a>, in the third round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel great now,\u201d Eala, 20, told reporters. \u201cI just told myself to keep fighting, and I was still in the match. I really had to dig deep for that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Eala was almost out of the tournament. Yastremska broke for 5-4 in the third \u2014 but was broken back after authoring one of her 15 double faults.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seizing on the momentum, Eala then won the next two games.\u00a0In the gripping finale, another Yastremska double fault brought up a fourth match point before her forehand went long.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eala exchanged a hug with Yastremska \u2014 who had Pam Shriver in her box \u2014 and seconds later, let out a huge roar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout, those fans, who waved flags of the Philippines and shouted her name, bolstered Eala. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt means the world to have this community behind me in such a prestigious tournament,\u201d said Eala. \u201cFor them to make the effort to stay up late and stay in the cold and cheer me on\u2026it really added to the feelings and the emotions after the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even prior to playing a match in Indian Wells, Eala\u2019s supporters packed her practice sessions<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a debut to remember for Alexandra Eala in Tennis Paradise.\u00a0 With temperatures dipping in the desert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-522900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}