How massive? By the time she stepped on Centre Court on Monday, 1.2 million people had watched highlights of her victory over Iga Swiatek<\/a> on Wimbledon\u2019s YouTube channel \u2013 more than twice as many as watched matches involving Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams.<\/p>\n The support for Eala was high and so were the expectations. After she beat Swiatek, the Philippines\u2019 \u00adpresident hailed her as an \u00adinspiration for young people. It meant there were watchalong parties for Eala back home, but those tuning in would not have liked that she was quickly broken to go 3-1 down.<\/p>\n The problem was Eala\u2019s first serve, which despite often floating across the net at a leisurely 80mph, or slower, was going in about 50% of the time. Perhaps the nadir came at 4-1 down in the first set, when she hit a first serve that barely hit the \u00adbottom of the net and then clanked her \u00adsecond serve long. Soon the first set had gone too. But as temperatures rose to 31C, Eala refused to wilt.<\/p>\n Having spurned three break chances at the start of the second set, she went on to break Paolini\u2019s next service game and held on to make it one set all. There were loud cheers of \u201cLet\u2019s go, Alex.\u201d<\/p>\n At this juncture, Paolini had won 69 points and Eala 68. Play continued to go on serve until 4-3 in the final set, when Eala made successive errors and was broken.<\/p>\n Despite her serve continuing to trouble her \u2013 one effort registered a meagre 65mph \u2013 Eala was still able to take the positives from her defeat. \u201cMy serve was not as good as maybe other matches,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I have days like that. Everyone has days where they don\u2019t play their best.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand that\u2019s part of the job. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to be playing the best tennis of my life every single day. I don\u2019t expect that.<\/p>\n Jasmine Paolini reached the quarter-finals of a grand slam for the first time in two years. Photograph: Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cOf course there are things I would have liked to do differently. But in the end, that\u2019s just tennis. That\u2019s also what\u2019s beautiful about tennis, is that every match, it\u2019s \u00addifferent. You\u2019re always finding \u00adsolutions, the opponent is always finding ways to make you uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n Paolini, who has had a difficult 2026, said she had been inspired by seeing Roger Federer in the Royal Box. \u201cI want to thank Roger, he\u2019s my idol. In the match I was trying to stay focused and not think about him being here.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Fortnightly<\/p>\n Sign up to The Hotspot<\/p>\n A new fortnightly newsletter covering the intersection of sport and the climate crisis<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cI watched all the finals and tournaments he played here. It feels amazing to be standing here with the win.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years ago, Paolini reached the finals of the French Open<\/a> and \u00adWimbledon<\/a>, losing both, but her form has dipped since and she came here ranked 17th in the world. A foot injury that interrupted her grass-court preparations hardly helped\u00a0either.<\/p>\n \u201cI came here having not played many matches,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter the first set in the first round [she lost it 6-0], I was like \u2018OK, it can only go \u00adbetter.\u2019 Point by point, game by game, I\u2019m feeling getting better on this kind of court.<\/p>\n \u201cGrass is a weird surface, sometimes you love it, sometimes you can hate it. When you play well and feel good, it\u2019s the best surface to play on. Today, I was really enjoying it and hopefully I can play another good\u00a0match.\u201d<\/p>\n Paolini will meet Marta Kostyuk, the Ukrainian ranked 13 in the world. After a few ups and downs over the last months, she is relishing what lies\u00a0ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really tough, a rollercoaster,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were tough moments, but I kept working with my team supporting me. Every day I\u2019m feeling better, I feel the right way when I compete on court again.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the most important thing to me. Stay positive and enjoy my \u00adtennis. I love what I do, but I have to enjoy it, it\u2019s my superpower.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexandra Eala left Centre Court with her hands shaped into a heart and a simple mantra for her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-747227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1028.jpg\")
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