Brad Gilbert believes that Alex Eala’s game is being severely hampered by her serve in the wake of her US Open exit.

Eala‘s third-round US Open clash with American Iva Jovic lived up to the hype as the two young stars went toe to toe on Arthur Ashe Stadium for more than three hours.

Despite being up a break in the final set, the 18-year-old rallied to win an epic 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 in what Gilbert called the match of the tournament, while former US Open quarter-finalist Ajla Tomljanović described it as the match of the year.

In late July, Rennae Stubbs said that Eala would not be able to win a Grand Slam if her serve didn’t improve a great deal, something the Australian has somewhat walked back on.

And while Greg Rusedski thinks the Filipina has it in her to top the WTA Tour rankings and win a major one day, Andre Agassi’s former coach Gilbert says Eala’s serve is the first thing that needs fixing.

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The American suggested that Eala’s slow serve would get eaten alive on the men’s tour, that she needs to increase the pace to over 100mph, rather than just rolling serves in to start a point. And if she can enhance her serve, the 21-year-old’s game will improve “exponentially”.

He said on the Big T podcast, “So what you were seeing from Eala last night (Saturday), it would be impossible to get away with that on the men’s side. She’s throwing in 73mph first serves.

“So that would be the first thing from the coaching standpoint that you would really try to focus on. It’s like, OK, I understand throwing in… I call it the three quarter serve, but let’s go 103. Let’s go 105. I feel like she hits way too many serves where she just literally hits a fifth serve and gets the point started.

“It’s like you start with no serve. That’s what she does a lot of points with. She just starts with no serve, that shot needs a lot of work. And she also doesn’t have a can opener lefty serve.

“My brain is thinking if she could improve her serve dramatically, I think her game will go up exponentially. But I think that is a shot she has to improve.”

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