Alex Eala and Coco Gauff faced off for the second time within a month last night, and it was the former who gained her revenge.
However, the conclusion of the match was far from triumphant, with the American forced to retire after complaining of an issue with her arm.
It was an issue that was clearly impacting her, as Alexandra Eala raced into a one-set lead. Then, having held and broken to start the second set, Coco Gauff decided that enough was enough.
They exchanged words at the net, with both looking regretful about how the match had ended.
Gauff has since revealed exactly what they spoke about after her retirement.
Coco Gauff and Alex Eala speak at the net after their Indian Wells match
She told her press conference: “No, she just told me I hope I feel better and things like that. I felt really bad to pull out; you never want to pull out, but more so for her because she was playing great tennis, and I don’t want to take anything away from the way that she was playing.
“Yeah, I’d rather finish the match and lose 6-0, but at that point, I just felt that because the pain was getting worse and I didn’t know what was going on, I just felt it was better to stop. But I think she’s going to have a great tournament.”
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It is a shame that the match had to end in such anticlimactic fashion, given how energetic the crowd had been watching their favourite Filipina sensation creep towards arguably the biggest win of her career.
Eala spoke about facing Gauff beforehand and had nothing but praise and respect for all she has achieved. However, the 20-year-old was ruthless as she secured her spot in the Indian Wells Round of 16.
The stats behind Alex Eala’s win over Coco Gauff
Although it may have been against a hampered opponent, Eala still deserves so much credit for such a clinical display against one of the world’s best.
After all, she served with impressive consistency, maintaining a first serve percentage of 68%, winning 59% of points on it.
Gauff, for comparison, managed just 44% of first serves in and won 49% of those points.
Eala was also supremely sharp when gifted the chance to break.
She forged six break points and converted five of them. Gauff could not dig her way out of this situation, smothered by arguably the biggest name in tennis right now.
With a Round of 16 match against Linda Noskova looming, Eala could be on track for another legendary run that cements her place ranked near the world’s elite.
Alex Eala gives her honest opinion on Coco Gauff
Interestingly, Eala was also asked about Gauff in her own press conference.
Touching on what she felt she did well to find herself in such a strong position, Eala began by admitting: “I think my focus was a big point of my match today and my strategy, as well as the intensity in my legs and the intensity I was able to produce to be aggressive.
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“Yeah, I took those learnings from the last match. I tried to do things differently, better on certain things I can control.”
Eala then turned her attention to Gauff, adding: “I know that Coco is a great player, and you know she’s really going to give you a hard time. There’s nothing much you can do about the other person playing well, so I tried to focus on what I could control, yeah.”
