Alexandra Eala scores second win over injured Jelena Ostapenko in Eastbourne

Alexandra Eala continued preparing for her Wimbledon debut on Wednesday, leading Jelena Ostapenko, 0-6, 6-1, 3-2 before the No. 3 seed was forced to retire at the Lexus Eastbourne Open.

Eala earned her first career victory over a Top 20 player at the Miami Open in March when she beat Ostapenko en route to the semifinals. The 20-year-old from the Philippines is now 2-0 against the former French Open champion, who suffered an ankle injury after in the final set and forfeited after 93 minutes on Court 1.

Eala has been one of the 2025 season’s feel-good stories, the Rafael Nadal Academy alum and former junior Grand Slam champion bursting onto the scene to reach her first WTA 1000 semifinal in Miami. From there, she nearly beat Iga Swiatek twice in a row at the Mutua Madrid Open, leading the former world No. 1 by a set and a break before the defending champion came back to win in three.

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After a quiet end to her clay-court season—and a first-round defeat at Roland Garros—Eala began the grass swing in earnest in Birmingham. From there, she reached a quarterfinal at the WTA 125K tournament in Ilkley.

Despite her meteoric rise up the WTA rankings, the 74th-ranked Eala still had to play qualifying at Wimbledon warm-up evets in Nottingham and Eastbourne. At the latter, she upset top seed Hailey Baptiste in three dramatic sets to make the main draw.

Once there, she breezed past Lucia Bronzetti to book a rematch with Ostapenko, a former champion in Eastbourne. The Latvian was seeded third at this year’s tournament and defeated home favorite Sonay Kartal to earn the chance at revenge over Eala.

That mission looked underway as Ostapenko raced through a 6-0 opening set. After losing a seventh straight game, Eala got on the board and went on a streak of her own to earn a 3-1 advantage. Breaking Ostapenko for a second time, she served out the second set and went up another break to kick off the decider.

A twisted ankle ultimately proved Ostapenko’s undoing as the former world No. 5 struggled with her movement despite treatment from the on-court physio, retiring as Eala served for a 4-2 lead.

Into her second career WTA quarterfinal, Eala awaits the winner of the second round between Dayana Yastremska and Francesca Jones. Yastremska is coming off a runner-up finish in Nottingham.