Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.
— B

MAYPAJO, Caloocan City — Our tennis pride Alexandra 'Alex' Eala and United States' number one netter Cori Dionne 'Coco' Gauff faced off for the second time within a month on Monday night, March 9, 2026, and it was our star who gained her revenge.
However, the conclusion of the match was far from triumphant as Eala's American rival lost because she was forced to retire after complaining of an issue with her arm that was clearly affecting her play even as Alex raced into a one-set lead. Thereafter, having been held and broken at the start of the second set, Coco decided that enough was enough.
The two exchanged words at the net, with both looking regretful about how the match had ended. Gauff revealed exactly what they spoke about after her retirement, saying Alex had wished her well and a fast recovery from her injury.
The American told the media at her press conference: “No, she just told me I hope I feel better and things like that. I felt really bad to pull out; you never want to pull out, but more so for her because she was playing great tennis, and I don’t want to take anything away from the way that she was playing.
“Yeah, I’d rather finish the match and lose 6-0, but at that point, I just felt that because the pain was getting worse and I didn’t know what was going on, I just felt it was better to stop. But I think she’s going to have a great tournament.”
It was really a shame that the match had to end in such an anticlimactic fashion but given how energetic the crowd had been watching their favorite Filipina sensation creep towards arguably the biggest win of her career, it is considerably providential for the 20-year-old from Quezon City.
Prior to her victory, Eala spoke about facing Gauff beforehand and had nothing but praise and respect for all she has achieved. However, she was ruthless as she secured her spot in the Indian Wells Round of 16.
Touching on what she felt she did well to find herself in such a strong position, Eala began by admitting: “I think my focus was a big point of my match today and my strategy, as well as the intensity in my legs and the intensity I was able to produce to be aggressive. Yeah, I took those learnings from the last match. I tried to do things differently, better on certain things I can control.”
Interestingly, Eala was also asked about Gauff in her own press conference and she turned her attention to the American: “I know that Coco is a great player and you know she’s really going to give you a hard time. There’s nothing much you can do about the other person playing well, so I tried to focus on what I could control.”
Later on, she outlined what she considers the ‘biggest result’ of her tennis career so far—her 2025 Miami Open run, where she first made a name for herself after beating top-ranked players Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek on her way to the semi-finals of the prestigious Women's Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 level tournament.
Despite her impressive wins, though Alex is still in the early stages of her career, she has already managed to record excellent runs at multiple WTA events, including the 2026 Dubai Tennis Championships and her current Indian Wells campaign.
It has been almost a year since that magical run and Eala has reflected on her performance in Miami: “Yeah, I think that Miami run was really big. It was my biggest result and I think that that was kind of the spark that lit the fire. I learned so much from that week, and I’ll always remember it as that.”
But there has so many things that have happened in between then and now that have added to how the Quezon City lass have grown as a player and as a person.
She enthuses. “I think one of the biggest things is maturity, experience, being able to surround myself consistently with this high of a level of tennis players, and this high of a level of competition pushes me to be better. So I’m trying to find my limits and go past that, yeah.”

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