The clay court, Alex Eala has admitted in the past, is not her favorite surface. But right after the Miami Open, she worked tirelessly back at the lab — the Rafa Nadal Academy — to prepare for the clay-court season.
The hard work paid off on Wednesday when she thwarted the spirited challenge of an inspired hometown bet Julia Grabher, 6-4, 6-3, in the opening round of the 2026 Upper Austria Ladies Linz at the indoor clay courts of the Design Center Linz in Austria.
Not only did the Austrian No. 1 Grabher have home-court advantage, but she was also playing on her preferred surface, as evidenced by the 11 ITF titles and two WTA 125 titles she has won on clay.
The 29-year-old Grabher immediately showed she was ready to put up a fight in front of her fellow Austrians, threatening with two break points in the very first game of the opening set.
Eala held firm, saving both to level at 1-1 after three deuces.
The rest of the set, up to the ninth game, went with serve — the difference being that Grabher breezed through her service games, while Eala had to fend off multiple break points in the fifth and seventh games.
But the 20-year-old Filipina elevated her play at crunch time, converting her second break point in the 10th game to secure the only break of the set and take it, 6-4.
The second set again began as a tight battle, with the world No. 89 Grabher’s vicious forehand allowing her to keep pace with the world No. 46 Eala.
But just like in the opener, the Filipina struck first, breaking in the fourth game before holding serve to go up 4-1.
Buoyed by the support of her home fans, Grabher rallied to cut the deficit to 4-3.
That proved to be her final stand, as Eala claimed the next two games to seal the second set, 6-3. The straight-sets victory still took one hour and 43 minutes to complete.
The win sets up Eala for another test against a clay-court specialist — fourth seed and former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia — in the Round of 16.
This will be the third meeting between Eala and Ostapenko, with the Filipina winning their two previous encounters in 2025 on hard and grass courts.
