MANILA, Philippines — Filipino tennis ace Alex Eala said there's nothing too serious about her right ankle which she tweaked in the second set of her third round match against American Caty McNally at the WTA 1000 National Bank Open Friday night in Toronto (Saturday morning in Manila).
Eala, who took a medical timeout after the fifth game of the second set for ankle treatment, defeated McNally in the grueling 2-hour and 39-minute battle, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
"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 think I was a little, I was like, Oh, 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," said Eala in the post-match presser.
World No. 20 Eala is confident she could recover perfectly in time for her fourth round match against No. 14 Belinda Bencic on Monday.
"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," said Eala.
"We're athletes. So that kind of physical is, you know, it's like a huge part of our job. 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."
After tweaking her right ankle, Eala labored a bit but still went on to serve for the match, which she could not hold as McNally eventually pushed the game to a decider.
Eala said she fed off the Filipino crowd's energy to get to the finish line, even urging them on to cheer louder after scoring a point she thought was pretty spectacular.
"I think, I mean, in that point specifically, I think I wanted to kind of, like, I was hyped, so I wanted to kind of share that with the crowd. Obviously, I also try to take in their energy," said Eala.
"I think it was a pretty good point. I don't remember quite so well. Yeah, normally I try to just be indifferent and kind of like, you know. But I think that point was specifically, I'm sorry, I can't find the word. I, yeah, I wanted that point."
