Heartbreak Down Under

Not even a roaring Filipino crowd can help Alex Eala make a historic Australian Open main draw debut.

The 20-year-old Filipina melted under enormous pressure as she suffered a heartbreaking 6-0, 3-6, 2-6 loss to world No. 99 Alycia Parks of the United States in the opening round of the women’s singles event on Monday at Court 6 of Melbourne Park in Australia.

In front of a huge Filipino crowd who braved the searing Australian weather just to see her make her main draw debut in the season-opening Grand Slam event, Eala failed to melted under pressure, allowing the big-serving American to wrap up the match and coast to the Round of 64 in one hour and 56 minutes.

It was Eala’s third time to make an early exit in the main draw of the Grand Slam after bowing to Emiliana Arango of Colombia in the French Open last May and Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic in the Round of 128 of the Wimbledon Championship last July.

But more than that, it denied Eala a chance to match her best finish of advancing to the second round, which she posted when she stunned world No. 14 Clara Tauson of Denmark in the first round of the US Open last September.

The 25-year-old Parks, the Georgia native whose career best ranking is No. 40 which she posted in August of 2023, stressed that facing Eala with a massive Filipino crowd behind her wasn’t easy.

“It was very difficult. I was expecting it, but I also wasn’t. She definitely has a good crowd. I just kept telling myself to stay in the zone,” Parks said, referring to the flag-waving Filipino spectators who reportedly went on to watch and cheer at the big screen in Court 7 after filling up every available seat in Court 6.

In fact, Eala’s fans got so pumped up that the umpire had to repeatedly call for spectators to lower down their cheers in a bid to will Eala to victory.

Chants of “let’s go Alexandra” frequently rang out, then hush descended when her American opponent sealed the match.

“I was starting to think I wasn’t focused on the game plan, which is why I played better in the second and third sets. I was just so focused on the crowd in the first set, which is why it went the way it went.”

True enough, Eala gave her supporters a lot of things to cheer for in the opening set as she took advantage of her foe’s erratic reception to secure an easy 6-0 win in 34 minutes of action.

But it was an entirely different story in the second and third sets.

With Parks starting to heat up, Eala had some troubles containing her serves, leaving her trailing 0-3 with only five games won. She tried to regain her composure and mount a rally to tie the frame, but Parks took advantage of her errors while firing back-to-back aces for a 6-3 win that sent the match to a deciding set.

Eala showed signs of life in the third as she engaged in a back-and-forth duel with the power-hitting American. With Eala holding her serve while trailing 2-3, she fell into a maze of errors that allowed Parks to further dictate the tempo with a 5-2 advantage.

Eala had one last chance to save a match point after forcing deuce on a Parks double fault and getting to break point when the American sent her forehand return into the net.

But she couldn’t sustain her momentum after committing another error before the American fired a forehand winner to reach match point. Then, Eala sealed her fate as she committed an error that gave Parks the victory and the right to battle Karolina Muchova of Czech Republic in the Round of 64.

All in all, Parks fired 12 aces compared to Eala’s only one. She also had 50 percent (4-of-8) of breakpoints converted while Eala had only 23.5 percent (4-of-17).

Eala said seeing a large group of Filipino supporters rallying behind her is more than just a victory.

“It was so heartwarming,” she said of the hero’s welcome she received all week.

“That’s one of the things that makes a loss like today a little bit harder — I know a lot of people were rooting for me.”

Eala, however, admitted that some of the attention had been too much.

“It’s a process to take it all in. I think this week definitely there were elements that were a bit overwhelming, especially during my practices,” she said.

“I didn’t expect that many people to be there so it’s a learning process.”

Now Eala will shift her focus to her doubles match with doubles specialist Ingrid Martins of Brazil on Tuesday as they take on Shuko Aoyama of Japan and world No. 50 Magda Linette of Poland.

Eala previously defeated Linette, 6-3, 6-2, in the quarterfinal of the Auckland Open in New Zealand, giving her some slight advantage heading into the competition.