{"id":256244,"date":"2026-08-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/05\/world-no-20-alex-eala-wins-big-ahead-of-national-bank-open-the-gist\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T00:00:00","slug":"world-no-20-alex-eala-wins-big-ahead-of-national-bank-open-the-gist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/05\/world-no-20-alex-eala-wins-big-ahead-of-national-bank-open-the-gist\/","title":{"rendered":"World No. 20 Alex Eala wins big ahead of National Bank Open | The GIST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The GIST: <\/strong>Fresh off her historic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DblzpdPSVFT\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DC Open<\/a> victory, 21-year-old world No. 20 Alex Eala \u2014 the first Filipino to win a WTA title \u2014 is the player to know ahead of this week\u2019s National Bank Open. From her meteoric rise to her powerful ball-striking, here\u2019s why Eala\u2019s been called the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/tennis\/articles\/cjwx9y96x90o#:~:text=%27Our%20new%20champion,our%20new%20champion%22.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">most exciting player on the WTA tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udfbe A product of the prestigious <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DbnRBoDissd\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rafa Nadal Academy<\/a> in Spain<\/strong>, Eala\u2019s been on the radar of tennis fans for a few years. Her DC win, along with several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtatennis.com\/players\/330332\/alexandra-eala\/matches#main-content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">deep tournament runs<\/a> over the past two seasons,\u00a0catapulted the youngster to No. 20 in the world rankings before she graces the Canadian hard courts, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/tennis\/story\/_\/id\/49502538\/us-open-hard-courts-feel-home-alex-eala-eyes-another-breakthrough\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a surface<\/a> she loves.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eala\u2019s unique left-handed grip and strong return game are perfect for the faster rallies the North American hard courts are known for. Plus, her serve \u2014 an area for improvement \u2014 is trending up as the US Open looms at the end of the month.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udc40 Eala\u2019s opening National Bank Open match is already sold out <\/strong>as she prepares to face American Alycia Parks tonight at 8:10 p.m. ET. What\u2019s more, she also received the Canadian Open\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DboPMw3pPPg\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">final doubles wildcard<\/a> to compete with a little someone named Venus Williams beginning tomorrow. The definition of must-see TV.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n  n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n  document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1716705275141133'); \/\/ Insert your pixel ID here.\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegistsports.com\/article\/alex-eala-wins-big\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GIST: Fresh off her historic DC Open victory, 21-year-old world No. 20 Alex Eala \u2014 the first Filipino to win a WTA title \u2014 is the player to know ahead of this week\u2019s National Bank Open. From her meteoric rise to her powerful ball-striking, here\u2019s why Eala\u2019s been called the most exciting player on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":256245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-256244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}