{"id":2075430,"date":"2026-08-03T19:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2075430"},"modified":"2026-08-03T19:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T16:00:08","slug":"greg-rusedski-predicts-when-alex-eala-will-start-challenging-for-grand-slams-amid-most-exciting-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2075430","title":{"rendered":"Greg Rusedski predicts when Alex Eala will start challenging for Grand Slams amid &#8216;most exciting&#8217; claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"ps-article-content rounded-lg lg:mt-5 lg:border lg:border-card lg:bg-card lg:shadow-primary\">\n<header>\n<h1 class=\"py-4 text-xl font-normal text-title sm:text-2xl\">Greg Rusedski predicts when Alex Eala will start challenging for Grand Slams amid \u2018most exciting\u2019 claim<\/h1>\n<div class=\"my-2 flex items-center justify-between\">\n<div class=\"flex items-center\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/author\/richie-mills\" class=\"text-sm font-normal !text-author\"><br \/>\n                            Richie Mills                        <\/a><br \/>\n                        <time class=\"ml-3 text-sm font-normal text-info md:ml-4\" datetime=\"03 Aug 2026 8:00 PM\" data-ps-date=\"03 Aug 2026 8:00 PM\" data-ps-datetime=\"1785783608\"><br \/>\n                            03 Aug 2026 8:00 PM                        <\/time>\n                    <\/div>\n<div class=\"hidden justify-end space-x-4 text-xl sm:flex sm:!opacity-100\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=tennis365.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><br \/>\n                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mx-auto !my-0 hidden dark:block h-6\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/content\/themes\/tennis365-sportsui\/img\/png\/preferred_source_badge_dark.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on 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             <\/a>\n                    <\/div>\n<div class=\"sm:hidden flex items-center space-x-5\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=tennis365.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><br \/>\n                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mx-auto !my-0 hidden dark:block h-6\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/content\/themes\/tennis365-sportsui\/img\/png\/preferred_source_badge_dark.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on Google\" width=\"76\" height=\"24\"><br \/>\n                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mx-auto !my-0 dark:hidden h-6\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/content\/themes\/tennis365-sportsui\/img\/png\/preferred_source_badge_light.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on Google\" width=\"76\" height=\"24\"><br \/>\n                        <\/a><br \/>\n                        <button id=\"t365-article-share-btn-hidden\" class=\"mr-2 hidden h-6 w-6 appearance-none border-none !text-share-icon outline-none hover:!text-share-icon-active sm:hidden\" data-title=\"Greg Rusedski predicts when Alex Eala will start challenging for Grand Slams amid \u2018most exciting\u2019 claim\"><\/p>\n<p>                        <\/button>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"-mx-3 sm:-mx-5 border-b border-page\"><\/div>\n<section>\n<div class=\"-mx-3 sm:-mx-5\">\n<figure class=\"aspect-h-9 aspect-w-16 relative\">\n                                        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1320\" height=\"742\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"w-full h-full object-cover object-center !my-0\" src=\"https:\/\/d2me2qg8dfiw8u.cloudfront.net\/content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Alex-Eala-celebrates-1320x742.jpg\" alt=\"Pictured: Alex Eala celebrates at Wimbledon\">                <\/figure><figcaption class=\"flex items-center space-x-3 border-b border-mobile-caption px-3 lg:border-caption\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"my-1.5 break-words !text-xs !text-content\">\n                                Alex Eala celebrates                            <\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<div class=\"ciam-article-t365\"><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Alex Eala is not too far away from being in the top five in the world and challenging for Grand Slams if she can make one or two tweaks to her game.<\/p>\n<p>That is according to former world No 4 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/greg-rusedski\">Greg Rusedski<\/a>, who believes the 21-year-old is capable of turning the relative weakness of her serve into more of a strength heading into the 2027 season.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the Filipina closing in on the top 20, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/alex-eala\">Eala<\/a> is 58th on the WTA Tour when it comes to aces, 89th for percentage of service games won, and 62nd for percentage of second serve points won.<\/p>\n<p>Even for return games won and return points won, the <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wtatennis.com\/stats\/2026?metric=Aces\" target=\"_blank\">WTA website<\/a> has her down in 95th at 35.4% and 43.7%, respectively. This, arguably, highlights how tough she is to beat from the baseline.<\/p>\n<p>Before the completion of her Washington Open final with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/jessica-pegula\">Jessica Pegula<\/a>, Rusedski <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/greg-rusedski\"><\/a>hailed the left-hander as the \u201cmost exciting\u201d player on the women\u2019s tour. Moreover, if she can add a few extra mph on her first and especially second serve delivery, she could start crashing the game\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>More Alex Eala News<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/jessica-pegula-comments-alex-eala-washington-dc-open-final\">Jessica Pegula makes \u2018crazy\u2019 Alex Eala confession at Washington DC Open<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/alex-eala-wta-rankings-milestone-admission-washington-dc-open-final\">Alex Eala speaks out after her big WTA Rankings breakthrough at Washington DC Open<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Want more from Tennis365? Add us as<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=tennis365.com\" target=\"_blank\">a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He said on the latest episode of <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZHqUz2CR8B0\" target=\"_blank\">Off Court with Greg Rusedski<\/a>, \u201cFrom my point of view, the most exciting player on the WTA tour is Eala because of the way she plays; she\u2019s fearless. She takes the ball early. She\u2019s a lefty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe one area to win a major, I still think that she needs in her game, is to get that serve a little bit better, a little bit more powerful. And I was listening to [Andrea] Petkovic, who\u2019s one of the best pundits in the world, talking about and comparing her to Eugenie Bouchard when Bouchard made her Grand Slam final, of how early she takes the ball, how aggressively she plays.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut then with Eugenie, it kind of went off the rails a little bit where she didn\u2019t have that pop on her serve and she couldn\u2019t keep that up and certain injuries came in. But Eala, you feel there\u2019s something different. Her mentality is so good. She\u2019s so strong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo from my point of view, she\u2019s a little bit of the dark horse. She\u2019s not quite ready, in my opinion, to win a major, but we have seen stranger things. I think maybe next year, if she can get that improvement on the serve, then she\u2019s definitely in the mix because the rest of her game is there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Washington, Eala will join a host of top women\u2019s players duking it out to win the Canadian Masters in Toronto over the next week or so.<\/p>\n<p>Eala is seeded 25th at the tournament and will face either Alycia Parks or Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva in round two. Despite not being in action until Wednesday, tickets for her encounter have already sold out, illustrating her popularity.<\/p>\n<p>Rusedski likened her to a certain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/serena-williams\">Serena Williams<\/a> in that regard, while also explaining how her lefty serve can bail her out of trouble despite not having a particularly powerful delivery.<\/p>\n<p>The former British No 1 continued, \u201cI believe for her first match in Toronto, it\u2019s a full sell-out, you know, opening match, which is unheard of. The only person who was doing that before her was Serena Williams. That\u2019s how big she is. And for me, she is nothing but a positive for the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd if that serve can get up to where second serves hitting about 75 to 80 miles an hour at the first, probably going about 105, she\u2019s in the top five. And then we\u2019re talking about her winning majors. So that\u2019s the area where she\u2019s got to get better.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHer team knows that if everybody\u2019s talking about it in the media, she\u2019s clever enough, she\u2019s got a great coaching staff, they know these things have to change and they\u2019ll build it up gradually and they\u2019ll get there in time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we all have little things we\u2019ve got to keep on working on. But the nice thing is she\u2019s a lefty. Being a lefty, you can get away with a little bit less speed because of the spin of the ball, the way it slides. There\u2019s not too many lefties on the WTA tour at the moment in the women\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eala ended up coming back to win in three sets as she became the first Filipina to win a WTA Tour title. Moreover, she also cracked the top 20 for the first time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WHAT NEXT? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/roger-federers-former-coach-hails-alex-eala-naomi-osaka-masterclass\">Alex Eala praised by Roger Federer\u2019s former coach after Naomi Osaka win<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End --><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greg Rusedski predicts when Alex Eala will start challenging for Grand Slams amid \u2018most exciting\u2019 claim Richie Mills 03 Aug 2026 8:00 PM Alex Eala celebrates Alex Eala is not too far away from being in the top five in the world and challenging for Grand Slams if she can make one or two tweaks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,249],"class_list":["post-2075430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-tennis365-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2075430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2075430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2075430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2075430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}