Wimbledon: Defending champ Barbora Krejcikova comes back to beat Alexandra Eala of the Philippines
From the start of the Open era in 1968 through 2023, only one reigning women's champ was defeated in the first round at Wimbledon: Steffi Graf in 1994.
But it happened last year to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic — whose title in 2023 made her the first unseeded woman to leave the All England Club with the singles trophy — and there were moments early Tuesday that it appeared it might happen again this year to the 17th-seeded Krejcikova, another Czech player and the French Open champion in 2021.
Eala is a 20-year-old left-hander who was competing at a Grand Slam tournament for only the second time. She lost in the first round at Roland-Garros in May.
Eala is the only woman representing the Philippines to compete in the main draw of Wimbledon in the Open era.
She signed with an agent when she was just 13 and honed her tennis skills at the Rafael Nadal Academy, getting advice from the 22-time major title winner who retired at the end of last season.
Eala was seeking what would have been her fourth top-20 victory of 2025. She grabbed attention at the Miami Open by getting past 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, Australian Open champion Madison Keys and former No. 1 and five-time major champ Iga Swiatek en route to the semifinals.
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Last week, Eala again defeated Ostapenko at the grass-court Eastbourne Open along the way to reaching the final there.
Krejcikova, who is 29, made it to the quarterfinals at Eastbourne before withdrawing from that tournament because of an issue with her right thigh.
She started slowly Tuesday, making 19 unforced errors in the first set. But Krejcikova cleaned up her play and had a total of 18 the rest of the way, often leaning forward with a clenched fist and a yell to celebrate points that moved her closer to the win.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
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