It was clear where Alex Eala’s biggest area of weakness lies as she lost her opening match at the Singapore Open against Tatiana Prozorova.
In front of a loud and excited audience, Eala’s star power was confirmed again as she pulled in a huge crowd to cheer her on, but their support was not enough to get her over the winning line as Prozorova recorded a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory.
A match that lasted three hours and nine minutes was packed with drama and plenty of twists and turns, but the statistic that stood out was the number of break points both players had.
Eala’s impressive ground strokes allowed her to get into many of Prozorova’s service games, with the 17 break points she created resulting in six breaks of serve.
That statistic follows the pattern of many Eala matches, as her hustling skills from the back of the court and ability to turn defence into attack give her plenty of variety from the back of the court.
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The trouble comes on her service games, with Prozorova creating 12 break point chances and converting on seven of them to win the match.
The story in this match had echos of Eala’s epic contest against Iva Jovic at the US Open, as both players traded blows from the back of the court in a thrilling contest that resulted in 37 break points across the course of that brilliant match.
Jovic broke the Eala serve on nine occasions and the Filipina won the service games of the American on eight occasions.
While the entertainment level was exceptional and both players highlighted their potential, it will be hard to win tennis matches against the best players in the world consistently if you are losing your serve on such a regular basis.
Tennis365 spoke to John McEnroe after that match and the seven-time Grand Slam champion highlighted his admiration for Eala while expressing a belief that she will not reach the top of the game without improving her serve.
“I’ll start by saying the sky’s the limit for her,” said McEnroe, responding to a question from Tennis365 in his role as a Eurosport and HBO Max analyst at the US Open.
“In tennis you need the full package. You need the movement you need, you know, that’s obviously extremely important in tennis with men and the women.
“Is she a great athlete? Yes, but to be that A-plus, that’s where you get found out if you are not at that level.
“Not everyone’s six one or six feet like (Elena) Rybakina or (Aryna) Sabalenka 5’11. Not everyone is as fast as Coco Gauff. That’s the type of thing that would bring Eala to the next level. of thing like bring her, excuse me, bring her to the next level.”
When we asked McEnroe what area of her game needed to improve most, he didn’t hesitate in his answer as he said: “If she wants to win one of these majors, she’s got to improve the serve. It’s a liability. It’s gotten better, but, you know, there’s more to come.”
