Alex Eala ‘tired’ but says ankle injury not serious

MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala alleviated worries about her fitness after twisting her right ankle in a gutsy win over Caty McNally in the round of 32 of the Canadian Open in Toronto on Saturday.

Eala tweaked her right ankle midway through the second set and fought through it en route to a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory over McNally to reach the fourth round of the WTA 1000 hard court event.

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“I kind of rolled my ankle in that second set. Like, I hit the forehand and I landed kind of wrong. I called the physio. I don’t know what happened, because it happened so fast. But luckily there’s nothing wrong with it, and it was no serious problems,” the 25th seed Eala said in the post-match presser.

Eala, who needed a medical timeout to have her ankle checked leading 3-2, was on the verge of sweeping McNally, serving for the match up 5-4.

But McNally fought back and forced the decider before Eala dug deeper and regained her rhythm to close out the match after two hours and 39 minutes.

The 21-year-old Eala admitted she’s feeling the fatigue from playing in back-to-back tournaments and coming off a title run at the WTA 500 DC Open in Washington on Tuesday, where she overcame World No. 3 Jessica Pegula in the final.

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“Today was physically, it pushed me a lot. I have a lot of matches in the bag. But that goes for good and bad. I think this is also a learning process. We’re athletes. So that kind of physical is like a huge part of our job,” said Eala, who opened her bid in Toronto with a three-set win over Alycia Parks on Thursday morning. “I think I have a great team who is going to help me recover, and I have high hopes for the rest of the tournament.”

“I needed to push a lot. I’m as tired as one can be at this stage. You can imagine, a lot of matches,” Eala said. “But, you know, that’s the job. I’m ready. I’m excited for another match. I’m going to do my best to recover and, you know, start again from zero.”

The Filipino World No. 20 will be tested again on Monday against 12th seed Belinda Bencic for a spot in the quarterfinals. Bencic outlasted Taylor Townsend in a grueling match that lasted more than three hours.