Mendoza: Eala earning precious lessons from clay courts

IT is not actually the wins, nor the losses, that matter in the current career path of tennis sensation Alex Eala.

The focus is on her main goal: a precious appearance at the French Open.

So, lay aside the previous results.

What ultimately counts is the fact of Eala getting the right feel of clay court action — clay court being the surface at Roland Garros in Paris, serving as the year’s second Grand Slam after the Australian Open last January.

Russian-born Elena Rybakina, now representing Kazakhstan, prevailed in Melbourne over No. 1 Belarussian Aryna Sabalenka, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Eala is 2-3, win-loss in her last three tournaments held on clay courts. Not bad.

She first won in Linz, Austria, beating hometown bet Julia Grabber, 6-4, 6-3, in the Round of 32.

But Eala unfortunately faltered against Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, dropping a 6-4, 7-5 decision after squandering huge leads in both sets.

And, perhaps, still feeling the pain of that heart-breaking loss to Ostapenko, whom Eala had beaten twice previously, the Filipino idol bowed next to Leylah Fernandez in the Porsche Open in Stuttgart, Germany.

That hurtful loss was a first-round 6-1, 6-4 thrashing from Fernandez, a Filipino-Canadian based in Toronto, Canada, who lost to UK’s Emma Raducanu in the 2021 US Open finals, 6-4, 6-3.

But in Eala’s last tournament at the Mutua Open in Madrid, Spain, she split her two matches.

Eala, ranked 44th, routed power-prone but erratic Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-3, 6-3, before bowing badly to No. 19 Elise Mertens in the second round, 6-2, 6-1.

Mertens’ victory was but a validation of the Belgian’s 7-5, 6-0 victory over Eala in the Jasmin Open in 2023.

But as I said, Eala’s 2-3, win-loss record in those three clay-court events can still be considered fair results as Eala targets a rare stint in the main draw of the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris from May 24 to June 7.

Surely, Eala did use her last three clay-court appearances as a learning curve in her much-awaited stint in the French Open, the world’s benchmark in clay surface.

Eala has three more clay court events to choose from, or play in, before plunging into Roland Garros.

They are the Catalonia Open in La Bisbal, Spain, April 27 to May 3 (WTA 125); the Italian Open in Rome, Italy, May 5-17 (WTA 1000); and the Parma Ladies Open, May 11-16 (WTA 125).

For Eala, 20, there’s no stopping now.

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