FILIPINO tennis sensation has not won back-to-back games in the Asian swing of the 2026 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour. She also lost her opening game against lower seeded players in Wuhan and Singapore. In the ongoing WTA 500 Tokyo Open in Japan, Alexandra “Alex” Eala is looking to break the slump as she takes on Talia Gibson of Australia, who is ranked 38thein the world. Eala, ranked 19th in the world, avoided another upset loss after dominating wildcard and No. 411 Mika Stojasavjevic of Great Britain, 6-1, 6-2, last Monday. That sets the stage for Eala to face Gibson for the third time in her tennis career either on Wednesday or Thursday in the round of 16. The order of play for Wednesday’s matches wasn’t available yet as of this writing. The 21-year-old Eala holds a 2-0 win-loss record over the 22-year-old Gibson in their head-to-head matches from their ITF years. Eala defeated Gibson first at the ITF W40 Palma del Rio, Spain, 6-3, 6-1, in June 2023. Two months later, the Filipino prevailed anew at the ITF W25 Aldershot, Great Britain, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. This is the first time that Eala and Gibson will clash in the WTA Tour. While Eala proves superior to Gibson with a higher ranking and a title that Gibson doesn’t have yet, the Australian netter has been performing better than the Filipino in the ongoing Asian swing. Eala was stunned in the first round by No. 217 Shi Han at the Wuhan Open and by No. 180 Tatiana Prozorova at the Singapore Open. Gibson, on the other hand, placed runner-up to Leylah Fernandez at the Singapore Open. She also reached the quarterfinal round at the Japan Women’s Open last week in Osaka. Last Monday, Gibson toppled No. 75 Daria Kasatkina in their first round clash, 6-0, 7-5, in Tokyo. At the Ningbo Open last week, Eala opened the tournament with an impressive 6-3, 6-1 victory over Diane Parry but bowed to Dianna Shnaider, 7-5, 6-4, in the next round.