The organisers of the Australian Open – or any Major tournament really – always have a tough job creating the schedule in the early rounds. But perhaps the biggest blunder of the week so far – in what has been a highly successful start to the event – was the court allocation of Alexandra Eala.
The opening week of a Slam has so many matches, so many players, only a certain amount of courts, with a certain amount of seats.
On day 2 of the Open, we had Australia’s highest ranked player, Alex de Minaur, taking on Mackenzie McDonald, after Matteo Berrettini pulled out with injury. As Australia’s highest ranked player, he was always going to be on centre court, and fair enough.
Coco Gauff was also on Rod Laver Arena, while on Margaret Court, Daniil Medvedev, and Amanda Anisimova were playing their openers.
Stan Wawrinka, a former champion, who has announced his retirement at the end of the year, was put out on Kia Arena, a court with a 5000 seat capacity. But with record crowds flocking to the precinct this year, even the 4th biggest court had lines snaking around it throughout the match.
So what to do about the player in the field who seemingly has the fastest growing following of either the men’s or women’s tour?
John Cain Arena? Kia Arena? Show Court 3, or 1573 Arena, which both have a 3000 seat capacity? Apparently not.
The player in question, is of course, Filipino young gun, Alexandra Eala. While Eala is ‘only’ ranked 49, the impact she has had on the world of tennis in the last 12 months has been nothing short of extraordinary.
After her run to the Miami semi-finals last year, the 20-year-old was thrust into the spotlight of not just the Philippines, but the whole South East Asia region appeared to take her under their wing.
Since then, any time the WTA post about her, the views are extraordinary. She’s adding tens of thousands of social media followers every week, and people are clambering over themselves to catch a glimpse of the next big thing in tennis.
Her pre-tournament press conference had 170K views on YouTube in 2 days. For perspective, Carlos Alcaraz’s conference had 28K, and Aryna Sabalenka’s, 9K.
Mind-boggling numbers.
Let’s be honest, no-one knows how high she’ll go. Maybe she’ll get to top 30 this year, maybe top 20, maybe one day she’ll win a Slam. Or maybe, she’ll never match the hype that surrounds her now.
Either way, it doesn’t really matter on a day like this.
Alexandra Eala was assigned court number 6 at Melbourne Park. A court adjacent to a rooftop bar. A court tucked away in a corner. A court that holds maybe 1000 (?) spectators.
Having come to the Australian Open every year for the past 3 decades, I have honestly never seen a crowd so big, trying to funnel their way into such a small court. In both directions leading to the court, the queues were 50-100 metres long, hours before Eala had even started warming up for her Rd.1 match against Alycia Parks, of the USA.
They were 20 deep just trying to catch a glimpse of Eala as she walked on to court. Fans were trying to hand their phones to ball boys and girls, to ask them to take a photo, as they couldn’t see from behind the fence. It was insanity.
There is a good reason why Eala walks on to the court with her headphones.
“I think it definitely helps. I listen to a lot of music, not just for tennis purposes. I listen to a lot of music in general. And it can get quite loud, especially when you’re walking into a court like that.
Yeah, you can really snuggle with some people over there and they start to talk to you. Sometimes they don’t understand you are in the zone. So I feel like headphones gives of gives that message.”
However, for Eala, her appreciation of the crowd is clear.
“Yeah, it was so heart-warming. That’s one of the things that makes a loss like today a little bit harder is I know a lot of people were rooting for me.
But then again Alycia played really well. And you know I just hope that the support continues with the losses along with the wins. I think that would really touch me.
But then again, the fact that everyone came out and really squeezed into that cozy court, I really appreciate it. I felt so loved. Even when I was 5-2 down in the third, you know, still felt the love.
So I’m really appreciative and super thankful.”
She also went on to say that Melbourne and New York have been the biggest turnout of Filipino fans around the world so far.
There’s no doubt the Australian Open schedulers were caught off guard by Eala’s popularity. But surely it’s their job to be aware of this kind of thing. For the safety and enjoyment of spectators, this match needed a bigger court.
Sadly, they won’t have to worry about it for another year, as Parks came back from losing the first set 0-6 (in an environment that clearly stunned her too), to win the remaining sets 6-3 6-2.
The fans didn’t stop cheering for their Filipino hero though. And the lesson for all future events is clear…allow plenty of seats whenever Alexandra Eala is playing.
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