The Alex Eala-Venus Williams doubles team won’t make an appearance at this week’s Washington DC Open and the Filipina has given her reason for opting not to partner with the tennis great at the WTA 500 event.
The 21-year-old partnered the former world No 1 on the grass at the Bad Homburg Open in June as they reached the quarter-finals before losing against the second-seeded pair of Olivia Nicholls and Tereza Mihalikova.
They were due to renew the partnership on the hard courts at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center as they were awarded a wildcard entry.
But it was announced over the weekend that Williams will now instead play with Diana Shnaider in the women’s doubles.
Williams stated that “[It] didn’t work out this time. Would love for there to be future times. We’ll see what happens”.
Both players will also compete in the singles in Washington DC and Eala has now given an update about the decision not to enter the doubles as she admitted it is in her best interest to focus just on the singles competition.
Alex Eala News
“I have so much respect for Venus. I am so grateful for every opportunity that I have to be around her, to learn from her, to hit with her,” the world No 28 said at her press conference.
“But I do think this is my first week coming back, and I think that Venus is someone who deserves a partner who can give their all physically, emotionally, mentally when they’re on court with her.
“I think right now I think I can only do that for singles. I don’t have the capacity yet to be able to give that in both singles and doubles. I’m really grateful for the opportunity that I had, or have, and hopefully we see more of it in the future.”
Eala has been handed a tough opening assignment in the singles as she faces former world No 4 and 2024 Australian Open runner-up Zheng Qinwen in the first round.
However, the Chinese star has struggled with form and injury as she lost in the first round at both the French Open and Wimbledon. She currently sits at No 123 in the WTA Rankings and needed a wildcard entry to compete at the WTA 500 event.
Eala, on the other hand, reached the last-16 at Wimbledon, beating defending champion Iga Swiatek during her run and she now has a chance to break into the top 20 with some deep runs during the North American hard-court swing.
