NAGOYA — World No. 18 Alex Eala has learned her path to the gold-medal match at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, where the women's singles champion will guarantee a spot at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The 21-year-old left-hander enters as the top seed with a first-round bye in the tournament running from 27 September to 3 October, arriving after a 6-4, 5-7, 3-6 defeat to world No. 180 Tatiana Prozorova in more than three hours in her opening match at the Singapore Open on Thursday.
The loss was Eala's first WTA Tour match since falling to Iva Jovic in the third round at the US Open on 6 September, and she acknowledged Prozorova's level afterwards. "I think Tatiana [Prozorova] played really well today. But yeah, first I think I have to, like every loss, accept the fact that maybe she performed better today, and then take the time to analyse, take the time to learn," Eala said. "I fought; I did everything I could on the court, but I think with my team it's just going to be... We didn't perform how we wanted, because of A, B, and C, and then get back on court and work on A, B, and C. Try to do better for the next match."
The draw, announced on Friday, projects a second-round meeting with world No. 510 Patcharin Cheapchandej for Eala, with Taiwanese star Joanne Garland a potential quarter-final opponent. World No. 84 Xiyu Wang could await in the semi-finals, while a final between the top two seeds would pit Eala against world No. 55 Shuai Zhang.
On paper it is a favorable draw. Eala is the only top-50 player in the field and by far the highest-ranked entrant, with only Zhang, third seed Yuliya Putintseva, fourth seed Wang and fifth seed Mananchaya Sawangkaew also inside the world's top 100. Her three-hour defeat in Singapore, however, showed any player can cause an upset on the day.