An early acid test awaits Alex Eala in her US Open main draw debut as the Filipina tennis star goes up against world no. 15 Clara Tauson of Denmark.
The bright lights of Flushing Meadows await Filipina tennis star Alex Eala, who will make her US Open main draw debut against world no. 15 Clara Tauson.
It will be their first career meeting, with the winner set to face either Spain’s Cristina Bucsa or a qualifier in the second round.
Eala also finds herself in a challenging draw alongside world No. 1 and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, as well as title contenders Jessica Pegula, Mirra Andreeva, as well as former Grand Slam champions Elena Rybakina and Emma Raducanu.
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Tauson is a three-time WTA champion who reached the semifinals of the Canada Open and claimed her latest title at the Auckland Classic earlier this year after Naomi Osaka retired with an abdominal injury.
She is coming off a Round of 32 loss to Veronika Kudermetova at the Cincinnati Open. But her biggest win of the tour so far came at the Dubai Championships, where she stunned Sabalenka to reach the quarterfinals, eventually reaching the final where Tauson lost to Andreeva.
This year, Tauson compiled a 33-17 win-loss record and reached at least the third round of each of the first three Grand Slam tournaments.
Meanwhile, the upcoming US Open marks Eala’s third consecutive Grand Slam appearance, following debuts at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. The 20-year-old missed three weeks of competition to recover from a shoulder injury that kept her out of Cincinnati and the Monterrey tournament in Mexico.
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She will enter the season-ending Grand Slam tournament unseeded, but Eala slipped to world no. 70 in the latest WTA rankings.
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The 2022 US Open girl's singles champion last saw action at the National Bank Open, where she was bounced by former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the opening round after a three-set loss.