At A Glance
- This, after all-time great Novak Djokovic took notice of the Filipino sensation's main draw appearance in the Australian Open, with her matches in singles and doubles drawing big crowds and loud cheers.
(AP)
Alex Eala, and her legion of Filipino fans, are definitely making a big noise in the tennis world.
This, after all-time great Novak Djokovic took notice of Eala's main draw appearance in the Australian Open, with her matches in singles and doubles drawing big crowds and loud cheers.
Djokovic, who holds the record for most Grand Slam wins with 24 titles, was well aware of Eala's glowing influence which he said is a "good problem".
“I saw the other day with Alex Eala, that's been a talk which is understandable. There's some players coming from respective countries, like she's coming from the Philippines, which is now a big deal,” said Djokovic, who barged into the men’s third round and will meet Dutch Botic van de Zandschul.
“She's been the biggest ever tennis player from that country, which is a big country and there's a big interest. So things like that happen. You could argue that it was maybe a poor schedule and maybe they could schedule him on a bigger court,” the 38-year-old superstar added.
It was a response by Djokovic after a reporter asked about the event being “too crowded, too corporate, too commercial, and too profit-centric at times.”
“Having too much crowd on this or any other tennis tournament is a very good problem to have, I think there are much worse problems,” Djokovic stressed.
“But again, it's a good problem to have, to be honest. Let's just imagine if there's a lack of people coming or that stands are empty, that's a bigger problem. I mean, this is great,” he continued.
Last Monday, Eala, 20, made her maiden Aussie Open main draw appearance where she ultimately suffered a 6-0, 3-6, 2-6 first-round loss to the hard-hitting American Alycia Parks.
Eala, however, goes for a fitting bounce back as a wild-card entry in the historic WTA 125 Philippine Women’s Open slated Jan. 26 to 31 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center in Manila.