Alex Eala seals historic victory at Wimbledon after straight set win against Mexico's Zarazúa in first round
It was a historic start for Alex Eala's second foray into the grass courts of the All England Club when she slammed against Mexico's Renata Zarazúa in the first round with a 6–1, 6–2 victory at the 2026 Wimbledon Open.
Eala, 21, now goes down in history as the first Filipino to win a singles main draw match in Wimbledon.
The win on Court No. 12 was Eala's first as a seeded player at the 2026 Wimbledon Championships, entering as the No. 29 seed. In her 2025 Wimbledon debut, she fought and lost against 2024 champion Barbora Krejcikova in the first round.
Early Wednesday morning, July 1 (Philippine time), Eala began the opening set with an aggressive game, eventually securing a 3–1 lead. Several extended rallies slowed down her approach in the fifth and sixth games, but Eala kept at it, inching toward a 5–1 lead. The seventh game sealed the deal against her world No. 75 opponent.
In the second set, Eala, world No. 30, carried her momentum to a seemingly effortless 2–0 advantage. Zarazúa fought back but failed to stem Eala's attack in the next three games. A fourth break in the sixth placed Eala ever closer to her first Wimbledon victory.
Eala remained composed throughout the match, but especially toward the end, allowing her to neutralize Zarazúa's service game, and ultimately to win.
The annotator compared the celebratory atmosphere after Eala's victory to one after a semifinal win, noting the frenzied cheers of the tennis star.
This was not the first time the Filipina and Mexican, 28, former doubles partners, shared a court as opponents. They competed against each other at the 2024 ITF Cary Tennis Classic, where Zarazúa beat Eala.
The Filipina ace is set to face Australia's Maya Joint, whom she first competed against, and lost to, at the 2025 Eastbourne Final.
Eala began her Wimbledon run after a premature exit from the Bad Homburg Open-Doubles, where she earned an initial win with former world No. 1 Venus Williams. The duo, however, fell short with a straight-set defeat at the quarterfinals, going against second seeds Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain and Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia.
