MANILA, Philippines – Alex Eala’s maiden appearance in the Italian Open might be something she would want to relegate to the dustbin of memories.
Eala had one of those days when nothing seemed to go her way as she suffered a 6-0, 6-1 beating at the hands of Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine on Wednesday, May 7 (Thursday, May 8, Philippine time) in the opening round of the tournament also known as the WTA 1000 Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
The Filipina protege, though, will still get a chance for some redemption when she sees action in the doubles competition on Friday, May 9.
Eala is set to partner for the first time with American tennis star and world No. 3 Coco Gauff as they go up against Fanny Stollar of Hungary and Alexandra Panova of Russia.
The encounter between Eala and Kostyuk in singles action was marked by a change in schedule and rain delay before eventually taking place at past 9 pm Italy time (early morning in Manila) in the last match at the Grand Stand Arena of the historic Foto Italico in Rome.
Kostyuk has been one of the steadiest players in the tour in 2025. She had previously gone past the first round six times in the nine WTA tournaments she had joined this year prior to the Italian Open. She showed the same level of consistency against Eala.
The world No. 27 served notice of her intentions early in the match when she persisted through four break points before finally forcing Eala to drop serve in the very first game of the first set.
That set the tone of the dominance of the 22-year-old Ukrainian star for the rest of the match.
Kostyuk sandwiched another service break in the third game with two held serves at love to go up 4-0.
Eala finally showed signs of resistance in the fifth game when she fought back from a 40-love deficit to get to deuce. But once again, it was Kostyuk’s stubborn determination which prevailed, clinching Eala’s serve anew on the fifth break point before closing out the first set in the sixth game.
It was more of the same in the second set with Kostyuk bent on not allowing the world No. 70 Eala back in the match.
Ukraine’s second-highest ranked player just behind world No. 14 Elina Svitolina, Kostyuk jumped to a 4-0 advantage built on a few winners and a string of unforced errors from Eala who simply could not find her rhythm.
The Filipina teen managed to get on the scoreboard in the fifth game, but it was a mere delay of the inevitable. Kostyuk ended the match in the seventh game after just an hour and three minutes.
A bigger challenge awaits Kostyuk when she advances to the second round as she faces world No. 15 Daria Kasatkina of Australia. The 28-year-old Kasatkina is originally from Russia and previously represented the country in competitions, before electing to shift federations in 2025 and represent Australia in protest of Russia’s war against Ukraine. – Rappler.com