Jessica Pegula was unable to take advantage of Alex Eala’s serve in the Washington Open final.
Pegula won her first ever WTA title in Washington D.C. in 2019, and it looked as though she was going to win the tournament again after winning the first set of the final against Eala.
However, after rain postponed the final to the following day, Eala came back to beat Pegula and win her first ever WTA title.
Eala, who is now a top 20 player, was able to do this in spite of her slower serve, which Pegula spoke about after the match.
Jessica Pegula specifically practiced for Alex Eala’s slower serve
Pegula spoke about Eala’s serve in her post-match press conference, as she claimed she returned a lot better the day prior when the final started.
The American also revealed that she had actually practiced against a slower serve to prepare for Eala, with Pegula admitting this didn’t seem to have been a great help to her in the match.
“For whatever reason it felt like I was returning much better yesterday than I was today,” said Pegula.
“I do feel like today she was going more for percentage than trying to go bigger and hit her spot, so I was seeing less second serves.
“In the warm-up, I think everyone that plays her would probably be working on a slower serve because her serve is definitely slower and you always practice how the person plays, so if they have a big serve I am practicing with people who are hitting their serve bigger, so I was trying to do more of that today which didn’t really seem to help very much!”
How do you rate Alex Eala’s chances of winning the US Open title this year?
Eala has just won her first WTA Tour title at the Washington Open!
Pegula’s comments are reflected in the match statistics, with the American winning just 30% of her total points on return.
This is even more apparent when you consider that Pegula only won 10 points against Eala’s serve in the second and third sets combined, compared to 11 in the first set.
Jessica Pegula says what she thought of the crowd vs Alex Eala
As is nearly always the case during Eala’s matches, the crowd was mostly in support of the ever popular Filipina, despite it being held in Pegula’s home country.
Despite the noise of the crowd, Pegula admitted that she is often so in her own world that she does not notice how loud the fans are, but she was pleased with the atmosphere, particularly given that the final had been postponed to a Monday.
“The crowd today was really loud, honestly,” said Pegula. “Sometimes I am so in my own world I don’t even notice how crazy it is because I feel like my perception might be different from people sitting in the crowd, but it was really nice to see a really big turnout today for a Monday final.
“That was nice to have even though it didn’t go my way. It was still a really great atmosphere, and I would rather play in an atmosphere like that than nobody.”
Does anybody else even come close to Alex Eala’s popularity right now?
Both Eala and Pegula will have little time to recover from their efforts in Washington D.C., as both players are entered into this week’s Canadian Open.
After receiving byes to the second rounds as seeded players, Eala will play against Alycia Parks, while Pegula faces Magdalena Frech.
