![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/sports-tennis-default.jpg\" "\\"sports-tennis-default\\"\/")
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AND Alexandra \u201cAlex\u201d Eala just made it to the main draw of the elite Queen\u2019s Club.<\/p>\n
Still in the thick of her campaign in Birmingham, Ms. Eala gained a promotion to the main tournament of the WTA 500 HSBC Championships in London, also known as the Queen\u2019s Club Championships, on June 8 to 14.<\/p>\n
Ms. Eala was supposed to play in the qualifiers but got the nod as replacement to Jessica Pegula and Hailey Baptiste of the United States due to injuries. The other replacement is Karolina Pliskova of Czechia.<\/p>\n
The Queen\u2019s Club Championships is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world serving as the premier pre-tournament for Wimbledon, the season\u2019s third Grand Slam and queen of grass, where Ms. Eala is also slated to play on June 29 to July 12.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s more to it than just Ms. Eala gaining a promotion at Queen\u2019s Club, as the legendary Serena Williams is also set for a grand return to tennis starting there after a four-year hiatus.<\/p>\n
The 23-time Grand Slam champion will play as a wild card in the HSBC Championships, also hinting to a much-awaited comeback in Wimbledon that she ruled seven times.<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, Ms. Eala is bound to team up with Venus Williams, Serena\u2019s sister, in the next tournament at the WTA 500 Bad Homburg Open on June 21 to 27 in Germany for a historic partnership.<\/p>\n
And Ms. Eala can\u2019t wait to share the court with one of the sport\u2019s greatest players ever, former world No. 1 and seven-time singles Grand Slam queen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am really, really excited,\u201d said Ms. Eala, WTA No. 37, on the Lawn Tennis Association Great Britain website.<\/p>\n
\u201cVenus (Williams) is such a trailblazer and continues to do so much and has done so much for the sport. I like to say that women\u2019s tennis has been a trailblazer for women\u2019s sports and she is a big part of why that is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Ms. Eala teamed up with American friend Iva Jovic (WTA No. 17) in stunning the 23-time Grand Slam champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist Ms. Williams, and world No. 7 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, 7-6(9-7), 6-1, in the Round of 16 of the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand en route to a Final Four finish.<\/p>\n
But first things first for Ms. Eala and that\u2019s to pass the test from world No. 130 Alina Charaeva of Russia in Round 2 of the WTA 125 Lexus Birmingham Open.<\/p>\n
The top-seeded Ms. Eala scored a 6-0, 6-2 grass season debut against Australia\u2019s Priscilla Hon, WTA No. 143, to arrange another duel against Ms. Charaeva after a 6-1, 6-2 win in the historic Philippine Women\u2019s Open earlier this year in Manila.<\/p>\n
Ms. Eala and Ms. Charaeva are 1-1 in head-to-head duels with the 24-year-old Ms. Charaeva drawing first blood in their first duel in the 2020 ITF Spain, 6-3, 6-3, during their junior days. \u2014 John Bryan Ulanday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AND Alexandra \u201cAlex\u201d Eala just made it to the main draw of the elite Queen\u2019s Club. Still in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[99385,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-255187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-john-bryan-ulanday","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}