From 5-1 down in the third, Alexandra Eala stuns Clara Tauson for first US Open match win

NEW YORK—Alexandra Eala scored her first Grand Slam main-draw victory in thrilling fashion at the 2025 US Open, roaring back from 1-5 down in the final set to stun No. 14 seed Clara Tauson, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (11) in the first round on Sunday.

Eala burst onto the scene earlier this year when she beat Iga Swiatek to make the semifinals of the Miami Open. At just 20 years old, she survived a third-set tiebreaker against Tauson to become the first Filipino player to win a Grand Slam match in the Open Era, advancing in two hours and 36 minutes on Grandstand court.

"I'm so blessed to be the first to do this," Eala said of her historic win. "I take so much pride in representing my country. It makes what I do bigger than myself. It adds meaning to what I do."

After making her Top 100 debut, the Quezon City native made her Grand Slam main draw debut in the spring at Roland Garros, but suffered back-to-back major first round losses in Paris and Wimbledon. Fresh off reaching her first WTA final on grass in Eastbourne, she led defending champion Barbora Krejcikova by a set before falling in three on Centre Court.

Eala played just one tournament during the US Open swing, taking another first-round loss at the Omnium Banque Nationale to Marketa Vondrousova, another former Wimbledon champion, putting her under the radar ahead of her first US Open main draw.

But the 2022 girl’s singles champion came to play as the match got underway on Grandstand. Playing in Queens, home to a large Filipino population, she started off by saving four break points in a long third game to break the in-form Tauson for 3-2, breaking a second time to take the opening set.

A finalist at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships back in February, Tauson clicked back into form at the start of the US Open swing with a quarterfinal finish at the Mubadala Citi DC Open and a semifinal run at the Omnium Banque Nationale. The Dane emerged from an exchange of breaks to start the second set and threatened to run away with the match after leveling the contest and taking a 5-1 lead in the third.

Eala thrilled the Filipino crowd reeled off five straight games—breaking serve at 4-5 after a lengthy disagreement over a call that required an assist from the still-nascent video review system—and earned the first match point of the thriller when Tauson served at 5-6.

"Although I'm at the start of my WTA career, I've played so, so many matches, and tight matches and tense moments can happen at any level," Eala explained in her post-match press conference.

"I've been playing since I was 4. I'm 20 now, so that's 16 years of experience, you know, whether it's at the junior level, 10-and-under level, professional level. I think that mental strength and that focus are the keys to, you know, coming out victorious in those moments."

Though she missed out on four total match points, she outrallied the No. 14 seed on her fifth to edge over the finish line, falling to the ground in delight.

"I was just so over the moon, and it was just such a rush of emotions. I think so many factors made the match so special, and I've been on the losing side of, you know, these tight tiebreaks before, so to be on the winning side, it's very memorable, yeah."

Standing between Eala and a spot in the third round is the winner of the match between Cristina Buçsa and American qualifier Claire Liu.