Alex Eala unwrapped another explosive show last weekend. This time, it was in the Cincinnati Open where she dazzled the crowd anew in her smashing debut in the WTA 1000 event in Mason, Ohio, USA.
Elena Gabriela-Ruse was Eala’s hapless victim, the ending so painful that the Romanian will lick her wounds for weeks to come.
Obviously stung for being broken right in the first game, Eala angrily broke back immediately before amassing a five-game winning streak for an emphatic 6-1 win in the first set.
Nobody does that better now than Eala, whose rise to prominence has been crazily assessed by even former doubters as nothing but phenomenal.
And only a robot — make that AI-powered humanoid — can perhaps survive that kind of malevolence Eala had administered on Ruse.
Thus, in the second set, Eala would promptly proceed processing a 3-0 lead — almost as effortlessly as Frank Sinatra would hit “My Way’s”
highest notes.
The next scene after Eala broke Ruse a second time to build that 3-0 bubble signalled impending doom: the Romanian had her right ankle checked before she asked for a three-minute medical timeout.
It was while Ruse’s ankle was being taped by a PT (physical therapist) that the skies darkened. In no time, lightning and thunder cracked, forcing the umpire to suspend play.
Like in golf, one lightning can also halt play in tennis for safety reasons.
Next, we saw Ruse retire, citing injury.
And with Eala’s 6-1, 3-0 triumph, the 21-year-old Filipino ace advanced to the third round — with the win proving sweeter as it avenged her loss to the 28-year-old Romanian in the 2024 US Open.
Eala was set to face Amanda Anisimova late last night, which is an interesting match, indeed, as Eala’s 24-year-old American opponent became the eighth Top 10 player in Alex’s list this year.
The first seven were Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek, Karolina Muchova, Elina Svitolina and Linda Noskova.
Eala had beaten them all, except Muchova and Noskova, the Czech stars who figured in the Wimbledon showdown in the first ever All-Czech finals won by Noskova in three sets on July 11, 2026.
Tenth in the world and No. 9 in Cincinnati, Anisimova, born in Freehold, New Jersey, USA, on Aug. 31, 2001, owns four titles, including two WTA 1000s.
But win or lose, Eala will use her Cincinnati run as a crucial cannon to her ultimate aim: the US Open set Aug. 30 to Sept. 13 in Flushing Meadows, New York.
Journey on, Alex!
