Alex Eala has been handed a silver lining despite her latest loss at the Tokyo Open

Alex Eala has been given some vital encouragement, despite dropping in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Open.

Eala has loved her best ever season in 2026, having won her first WTA title at the Washington Open, reached the fourth spherical of Wimbledon and broke into the high 20.

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However, the Filipina has struggled to proceed this kind since the US Open, with Eala profitable just three of her seven WTA Tour matches since the last Grand Slam of the 12 months.

Two of Eala’s losses have come against Diana Shnaider, including at the Tokyo Open, but what has occurred since then should present her with a big morale increase.

Alex Eala pushed eventual champion Diana Shnaider the most at the Tokyo Open

Eala lost to Shnaider at both the Ningbo Open and the Tokyo Open, but their most latest encounter in the Japanese capital was much nearer fought as the Russian came from a set down to win 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.

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Shnaider would go on to win the Tokyo Open title, her first match victory of the 2026 season, after beating Leylah Fernandez in the closing. Eala was not the only participant to push Shnaider to three units, but she was definitely the closest to beating her, having been just two factors away from a straight units win.

This should be vastly encouraging for Eala, not only because she had been through a run of comparatively disappointing outcomes, but also because she closed the hole on Shnaider.

It goes to show the margins between a participant dropping in the quarter-finals and another profitable the title, exhibiting that the Tokyo Open was positively Eala’s best match since the US Open.

Alex Eala’s shocking greatest risk to profitable the Hong Kong Open

Eala will now hope to use the kind she confirmed in Tokyo at her closing match of the 2026 season, which is the Hong Kong Open. Eala may be relieved that Shnaider is not in the draw in Hong Kong, but there are still a quantity of threats to her profitable a second WTA title.

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Alycia Parks will be Eala’s first spherical opponent and based mostly on rating her most possible opponents in the draw are Tereza Valentova, Xinyu Wang, Maria Sakkari and Sorana Cirstea. Other than Sakkari, who she has never performed before, Eala has performed at least two matches against all of these gamers before.

Eala has 1-1 head-to-heads against Parks, Wang and Cirstea, but won their most latest assembly, but she has never crushed Valentova before having lost both of their earlier conferences at the Japan Open in 2025 and the Qatar Open in 2026.

Valentova, who is still only 19 years outdated, loved a breakthrough season last 12 months and was ranked as high as world quantity 42 in May, but a drop-off in kind and harm points have precipitated her to fall outside the high 80.

Eala will only play Valentova if she beats Parks in the first spherical of the Hong Kong Open and the Czech wins her opener against qualifier Himeno Sakatsume.

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The principal draw of the Hong Kong Open gets underway on Monday, November 2, but Eala and Valentova will not play their first matches until Tuesday.