WASHINGTON — It may not have been how she expected to win her first title, in a rain-delayed final played in front of an intimate crowd on a Monday afternoon, but minutiae tends to fade into the background when history is on the line.That’s how it was for 21-year-old Alexandra Eala at the D.C. Open, who came from a set down to defeat top seed Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-4, 6-0. It made her the first player from the Philippines to win a WTA Tour title, and she did it in style, racing through the third set with the controlled aggressiveness and laced ground strokes that have come to define her game.The crowd, which filled most of the lower bowl of the approximately 7,500-seat stadium, roared when she finally won, waving the small Filipino flags they’d brought affixed to sticks, draping the large ones they’d brought around their shoulders or simply raising them high with pride. Eala draws massive crowds wherever she plays, but her fame reached new heights last month after she beat the defending Wimbledon champion Iga Świątek on Centre Court. On Monday, fans chanted her name and stood, applauding, whenever she walked to her chair during a changeover.
The victory was hard-earned. Pegula is the world No. 3 and second top-10 player Eala defeated in Washington, after No. 10 Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals. She also beat four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the semifinals and former U.S. Open finalist Leylah Fernandez before that.The championship was something of delayed gratification.The final began Sunday, when the D.C. Open was originally scheduled to end, but intermittent rain, thunder and lightning delayed it by three hours before Pegula and Eala finally took to the court. Pegula won the first set, 6-4, and Eala led 2-1 in the second before the rain began again and the tournament suspended play just before 4 p.m. After a few attempts at a restart, it finally canceled play for the day just after 9 p.m.Alex Eala’s fans made up most of the crowd at the D.C. Open final Monday, which resumed after a rain delay. (Nick Paciente / Sipa USA)They resumed Monday at noon in heavy, hot, muggy conditions in front of a mostly full lower bowl dotted with the Filipino flag. Eala draws massive crowds wherever she plays and had the support of most of the crowd Monday, though Pegula, the world No. 3 and top-ranked American, had plenty of fans in her corner. After a succession of regulation service holds, Eala snatched a break in the 10th game of the second set and didn’t look back, reeling off the next six to secure the title.Both players now have to make a quick dash to Toronto, for the Canadian Open, which started Sunday. As seeds, Pegula and Eala received a first-round bye.
