Alexandra Eala begins Birmingham Open with win while entering Queen's Club Championships main draw

While Roland Garros reaches its final stages, grass is calling for many players with the road to Wimbledon about to commence. Alexandra Eala is raring to go and has already commenced her grass swing with a win at the Birmingham Open while announcing her intention to play in another tournament.

After two first round defeats in Strasbourg and Paris to end her clay swing in disappointing fashion, she is straight onto grass with the WTA 125 event in the West Midlands. The number one seed drew Priscilla Hon in the opening round, and battered her 6-0, 6-2.

Taking just under an hour, Eala wasted no time in sealing the first set while dropping just eight points before ending with a hold to love. She made it 11 games in a row before Hon finally got on the board, avoiding a double bagel as she saved a match point on serve. Eala had no trouble serving it out, again holding to love to cap off a very impressive showing. Into the last-16, she will face Alina Charaeva. The likes of Janice Tjen, Tatjana Maria and Ajla Tomljanovic are also competing.

Eala has capitalised from a withdrawal from Queen’s Club Championships, taking that place for her own in the WTA 500 event. Cristina Bucsa pulled out and that left a space for the Filippino to add another grass tournament on her schedule.

This could be slightly risky if she reaches the final in Birmingham, making for a very quick turnaround as she traverses down to London to compete in another tournament. Other withdrawals included Linda Noskova and Hailey Baptiste which bumped Eala up from the qualifying slots straight into the automatic draw. Zheng Qinwen and Karolina Pliskova also benefited from this.

Eala is then, for the time being, got a week off from the 15th-20th June. The Berlin Open or the Nottingham Open could be tempting prospects for her, especially Berlin with Eala competing in the Bad Homburg Open a week later, also in Germany.

Here, she will take to the court with Venus Williams in the doubles. Eala has regularly played doubles throughout 2026 with sparse success. One of the most notable matches came in Auckland where both her and Williams were on court, but in opposing lineups. Eala partnered with good friend Iva Jovic in a very youthful team which faced Williams and Elina Svitolina. The young guns prevailed, and the 21-year-old will hope for the same with the seven-time Grand Slam champion.

“I am really, really excited. I mean, Venus is such a trailblazer and continues to do so much and has done so much for the sport,” she said, enthralled to step onto the court with a legend. She could also compete in the singles if there is movement above in terms of withdrawals.

This tournament comes the same week as the Eastbourne Open. This is significant with Eala having reached the final of the tournament last year. It was an enthralling three-set thriller against Maya Joint. It went to a final set tiebreak in which Eala would squander four match points, handing Joint the win.

Those points could come off ahead of the big one: Wimbledon. Eala made her debut at SW19 last year, losing to reigning champion Barbora Krejcikova on Centre Court in the first round. The third Grand Slam of the year will take place from 29th June - 12th July.