Eudice Chong and En-Shuo Liang have enjoyed success before, but nothing beats the prestige of being the first-ever champion in a tournament after they ruled the doubles draw of the Philippine Women's Open.
Eudice Chong and En-Shuo Liang dug deep to complete a stunning comeback against top-seeded doubles pair Quinn Gleason and Sabrina Santamaria in their Philippine Women’s Open doubles final at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
Though not necessarily new to success, Chong and Liang were both ecstatic to officially become the first-ever champions at the WTA 125 tournament.
Fighting back from being down 2-5, Chong and Liang enjoyed the come from behind win, but it also gave significant weight that they were the inaugural champions of the tiff, and the first-ever WTA titlists awarded on Philippine soil.
[RELATED: Chong-Liang completes comeback to win Philippine Women’s Open doubles crown]
“I would say it's the top two [in ranking our wins], because I think the first one for us was really special, I think, in September last year in China. But this one also is pretty special, I think, especially being the first tournament here in Manila,” Chong told media after the final on Friday night.
“I think hopefully there are going to be more tournaments here, and we'd love to come back and compete here again,” she added.
But claiming the championship was nothing but easy for the pair, with Gleason and Santamaria presenting a big challenge.
In fact, in the second set, the American duo even reached match point in Game 7, before Chong and Liang were able to slowly but surely chip away at the lead.
Chemistry is key
Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of Chong and Liang was the fact that they’ve been playing together for longer.
Whereas this was only Gleason and Santamaria’s second partnership, Chong and Liang have been playing together since September of last year.
For Liang, it was a big thing that they were able to grow together as partners in facing such stringent competition in the final.
“I think, especially the finals, we were down very far from the match. We were not in the match in the beginning, but we're still trying to find a way to come back, and I think it's a really good match for us to be a better doubles team,” she said.
Meanwhile, Chong underscored the importance of momentum and how they were able to swing their fates after saving match point in a crucial moment in Set 2.
“I think in the beginning of the match, first set and second set, we were still trying to find our rhythm. We were a little bit, I think, slow with our feet and I think we were trying to just make our opponent play a lot of balls. And we slowly kind of found our way back,” she said.
“I think on their match point, it was a really, really long point, but we were able to kind of come back from that. I think that was a point where it was a little bit of a turning moment for us, where we could kind of find our way back into the match and find our rhythm again,” she continued.
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Luisa Morales is a sports writer with a special interest in promoting women’s sports.
Her coverage highlights include the UAAP, PVL, Southeast Asian Games, and the FIBA World Cup. She also follows Alex Eala, the Philippine women’s national football team, and mixed martial arts.