Alex Eala has once again been given top billing at the Canadian Open as her third-round match against Caty McNally will also be staged on Centre Court
The 21-year-old is certainly living up to the hype as, barely 48 hours after winning her maiden WTA Tour singles title by defeating Jessica Pegula in the rain-delayed Washington DC Open final, she continued her winning run with a win over Alycia Parks in Toronto.
With Eala fever gripping the tennis world, organisers are cashing in on her popularity as her army of Filipino fans is filling stadiums whenever she plays and it was no different during her opener against Parks.
That match took place on Centre Court on Wednesday evening and those in charge of the scheduling in Toronto have no reason to change the winning recipe as the Eala-McNally encounter will also take place on the feature court at Sobeys Stadium on Friday.
Order Of Play
Four matches are set to take place on Centre Court on 8 August with current Australian Open champion and world No 2 Elena Rybakina and American Ann Li starting the action at 12:30 local time (16:30 GMT).
That match will immediately be followed by the fifth seed and reigning French Open champion Mirra Andreeva’s clash with local hero Leylah Fernandez.
WTA News
Fourth seed Coco Gauff and Maria Sakkari will kick off the evening session at roughly 19:00 (23:00 GMT) before Eala and McNally step onto the court for the final match of the day and that encounter is likely to get underway at 20:30 (0:30 GMT).
However, if the Gauff-Sakkari match takes a couple of hours to complete, then the start of the Eala-McNally match will be pushed back.
Who Is Caty McNally?
The American currently sits at No 70 in the WTA Rankings, 20 spots below her all-time best of 50 that she achieved in June this year.
McNally, who beat qualifier Tatjana Maria in three sets in the first round, booked her place in the third round with a stunning victory over newly crowned Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova as she defeated the sixth seed 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.
The win over Noskova was only her second top-10 victory with the other one coming against Victoria Mboko at the Madrid Open this year.
The 24-year-old is yet to reach a singles final on the WTA Tour, although she does have nine doubles titles to her name. She has also finished runner-up at back-to-back US Open as she was a losing finalist alongside Coco Gauff in 2021 and with Taylor Townsend the following year.
World No 25 Eala and McNally will meet for the first time on the WTA Tour on Friday and the winner will face either Townsend or 12th seed Belinda Bencic in the fourth round.
