Alex Eala is encouraged to make an important career choice quickly after her recent loss.
Alex Eala is one of the most well-known names in today’s women’s tennis, even though she hasn’t won a big title just yet. The talented Filipina player won the Washington Open, a important WTA 500 event, back in August. But since then, her results haven’t been as strong, and in her latest tournament—the 2026 Ningbo Open—she was knocked out in the second round.
After this loss, a famous coach has encouraged her to make a big decision for her career. At 21, Alex lost in straight sets to world No. 13 Diana Shnaider, but her serve really let her down. She got broken six times in 11 service games and only won 38 out of 77 points on her serve, with a low success rate on both her first and second serves.
This isn’t the first time her serve has been a concern. Legendary coach Rick Macci, who once trained Serena and Venus Williams, has pointed out the problems with her serve before. He shared his thoughts on social media, saying her serve could be improved a lot by using a science-based, step-by-step approach. He explained that the way she currently serves is all wrong and a big change could turn her into a much stronger player.
Alex knows she has a few months before the next Grand Slam at the Australian Open in Melbourne. She’s hopeful this time is enough to fix her serve and push herself to finally win a major title. So far, she has never gone past the first round in Australia, but her rise in the world rankings means she’s ready to change that.
Her best Grand Slam result was at Wimbledon this year when she reached the fourth round. Next season, she wants to be a serious contender for trophies, and improving her serve is the first step. She’ll start working on this during training, and Coach Macci is hopeful she’ll show progress soon.
Alex’s next event is the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo next week. She’ll play against wildcard Mika Stojsavljevic in the first round, and fans are excited to see if she comes back stronger.