Alexandra Eala reached the third round at Wimbledon for the first time on Thursday, recovering from a set down to beat Australia’s Maya Joint 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 on Court 3 and extend the deepest Grand Slam run of her career.
The 29th seed, the first player from the Philippines to be seeded at a major, dropped a scrappy opening set before taking over. She lost only two games across the final two sets and finished with a bagel, sealing the win in one hour and 57 minutes.
A rematch reversed. The result carried added weight. Eala had lost to Joint in the 2025 Eastbourne final, holding four championship points before falling in a third-set tiebreak — the most painful defeat of her young career. This time the deciding set ran the other way. Eala took it to love, breaking through a pair of long deuce games to open a 3-0 lead and never letting Joint back in.
Diverging paths. A year ago both players sat outside the world’s top 150. Their trajectories have separated sharply since. Eala arrived in London off a standout grass swing — the WTA 125 Birmingham title and a semifinal run in Berlin built on straight-set wins over Elena Rybakina and Elina Svitolina. Joint, a former top-30 player now ranked No. 87, has spent the season in a prolonged slump, though she had rediscovered something in the first round with a three-set upset of Serena Williams.
The match. Eala struggled early with Joint’s pace and lost the opener 6-3. The turnaround came on return. She began extending rallies and forcing errors, broke repeatedly through the second set, and carried that pressure into a decider Joint could not compete in. Joint held a 40-30 lead in the final game but could not convert, and Eala closed it out.
What’s next. Eala will face defending champion Iga Swiatek for a place in the round of 16. Swiatek, the third seed, advanced earlier Thursday. The two have not met on grass, and it will be Eala’s first match against a reigning Wimbledon champion at a major — the stiffest test of her fortnight.
The run continues a breakthrough stretch for the 21-year-old, who last year became the first Filipina to reach a WTA 1000 semifinal, at Miami, and the first to enter the world’s top 100.
