Alexandra Eala finally ended her long wait for a WTA tour-level title by defeating Jessica Pegula in the final of the Citi Open. She recorded a stunning 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory in an encounter that was severely affected by rain and had to be shifted to the next day. It wasn’t a surprise to see Eala over the moon after the grueling victory, but she made an unexpected mistake out of excitement.

Pumped after winning the final, Eala tried throwing one of her sweatbands towards the crowd in the first few rows. Unfortunately, her target missed and the band hit Rennae Stubbs instead as she was passing by. Eala apologized right away, but Stubbs wasn’t hurt by the band and laughed it off instead.

The celebrations continued for Eala, who also made her breakthrough into the Top 20 on the rankings with this victory. Pegula, who was chasing her third title in Washington, failed to contain the Filipina, especially in the third set, which was pretty much a one-sided affair.

It won’t be wrong to say that the rain played a key role in Eala’s triumph as she wasn’t in a great spot on Sunday. The 21-year-old was trailing 4-6, 2-1 when relentless rain hit Washington and the match got abandoned for the day. When the two players returned the next day, Pegula was solid with her performance again and built up a 4-3 lead in the second set.

But Eala turned the match around after this point. She first won three consecutive games to win the second set and level the match. Pegula lost all her momentum by losing the second set, and all things just went wrong for her in the decider.

The crowd favorite, Pegula, wasn’t even able to get a service hold as Eala ruthlessly bagelled her to clinch the final. After the match, Eala admitted that the rain delay brought about “a crazy 24 hours,” where she practiced on numerous occasions.

“I think I warmed up a thousand times,” she said after the final. “It was difficult, I think … at the same time, it’s happened to me a lot; rain delays a lot of times in my life. I think this is just kind of another one of those, although it was a lot higher stakes. But I think I was able to take my time and take those learnings from the first half of the match and do my best to apply them in the second, and I think it worked pretty well.”

Eala had a golden chance to win her maiden tour-level title last year when she reached the final of the Eastbourne Open. She had four championship points under her belt against Maya Joint, but lost them all and came up short in the third-set tiebreaker.

However, Eala didn’t let the painful history repeat itself in Washington and will now be brimming with confidence as she enters the upcoming tournaments in the North American swing. The most impressive part about Eala’s triumph at the DC Open is that her path was incredibly difficult. But she passed all the hurdles with flying colors.

Alexandra Eala had a grueling campaign at the DC Open

Eala began her campaign with a hard-fought victory over Qinwen Zheng. The Chinese took the opening set to put all the pressure on the Filipina, but she didn’t back down and mounted an incredible comeback. The 21-year-old eventually triumphed 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

This victory was followed by a clash against Leylah Fernandez. Though it was expected to be a close encounter, Eala made sure that the match didn’t go into a decider and racked up a convincing 6-2, 7-6 win. Then came arguably Eala’s most impressive performance of the event.

She took on Elina Svitolina in the third round. Though the odds were clearly stacked against Eala, she delivered an incredible performance under pressure and recorded a dominant 6-3, 6-4 victory to secure a spot in the semifinals. This result set up a maiden tour-level clash against Naomi Osaka.

Eala put in another superb performance in the last 4 and racked up a solid 6-4, 6-2 victory over Osaka. Though the Japanese appeared to be in the game in the opening set, Eala took it away from her once she won the first set and then made light work of her in the second.

The victory over Pegula is just an exclamation mark over a sensational campaign that Eala and her fans will remember for years to come. But the Filipina doesn’t have a lot of time to rest and celebrate this victory as she will now be preparing for the National Bank Open, where she is scheduled to face Alycia Parks in the first round on Wednesday.