Alex Eala has reflected on beating Jessica Pegula in the final at the 2026 Washington DC Open to secure her maiden WTA Tour title.
The 21-year-old Filipina overcame world No 3 Pegula 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 in a final played over two days due to rain in Washington.
Eala also defeated Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina, Leylah Fernandez and Zheng Qinwen during an impressive run at the WTA 500 tournament.
Here is everything Eala said in her press conference after her triumph in the United States capital.
Q. Congrats on your first title. Just your thoughts on your win.
Eala: Oh my gosh… I’m super happy, taking it all in right now. And yeah, just pure happiness
Q. Can you talk through the last 24 hours, what it was like in the first part of the match, all the waiting you had to do, and then what felt different in the resumption. Jess said it was like two different matches basically with the conditions and I guess how well you were playing today also.
Eala: No, it’s been a crazy 24 hours, of course. I think I’ve warmed up like a thousand times. A lot of un unpredictable swings with the weather, and I want to thank the tournament for just being so accommodating helping us through it and arranging this Monday final was was really great. Yeah, it was difficult I think to kind of like, I don’t… well, at the same time, it’s happened to me a lot, rain delays, a lot of times in my life. I think this is just kind of another one of those, although it was a lot higher stakes, but I think I was able to take my time and kind of take those learnings from the first half of the match and do my best to apply them in the second, and I think it worked pretty well.
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Q. It seemed like the crowd was even more vocal and maybe even more Filipino today than yesterday. Did you notice that as well?
Eala: No, I didn’t. But I was so pleasantly surprised with the turnout today and super grateful for all the fans who waited the whole day yesterday. They really stuck it out, and the people back home, I know like couldn’t get a lot of sleep. So super grateful and I hope you guys enjoyed the end of the final. Yeah.
Q. You’ve talked all week about how you’ve been able to kind of stay locked in with everything that’s going on around you, but that immediate moment when you collapsed to the ground after match point, how would you describe your emotions in that moment and the things you were thinking in that immediate moment?
Eala: I was so nervous and and I kind of just blacked out. Everything just came rushing to me and I was really nervous before the last couple of points. And I was really trying to channel those nerves into hitting good balls and moving my feet. So yeah, a lot, a huge burst of emotions.
Q. How much can you take away from this tournament knowing the quality of opponents you’ve beaten, not just here, but recently?
Eala: So many takeaways from this tournament, and I think I ended the tournament in better shape than I started. I think each match I kept improving and kept learning things about myself. So, definitely gives me a lot of confidence and it’s just really nice to see all the things that I’ve been working on off court or during training being implemented in matches.
Q. I think you’ve probably made history a lot in your career already, just along the way. But how do you kind of square like celebrating that for you personally while it also means so much to so many people?
Eala: Well, yeah, and I’ve said this a lot, but first and foremost, it’s an achievement for myself. It’s a personal achievement. I’ve worked really hard, and oh my gosh, winning a 500 is is insane. It’s an incredible milestone for me and at the beginning of the week, there’s no way I would have thought that I would be holding this trophy, and even at the beginning of the year. Like it’s just, these things kind of creep up on you, and yeah, I hold these moments really close to me.
Q. You beat an Olympic gold medallist, defending champion, the number two, three, and one seeds in that order. How much pride do you have in what you were able to do this week and the challenges you overcame because it was a pretty steep hill to climb this week?
Eala: It was was a very steep hill and coming into the tournament I knew that the competition was super strong. And my draw was quite tough. Every match was just a different set of obstacles. So I’m really really proud. I think I encountered my fair share of obstacles this week. So super happy.
Q. How do you think this can propel you going forward having this title under your belt?
Eala: Well, I think to have this many matches at this very high level, like you said, having these high calibre players, it helps me obviously just gain experience and more core time at that level. And I think inevitably propelling my progression and the level of my game, because if you spend time at that kind of zone, the more time you spend, I believe the better you get and the more consistent you get. So it’s it’s all these matches and all these hours are just experience in the bag.
