Alex Eala beats Diane Parry 6-3, 6-1 in Ningbo to end a three-match losing streak
Alex Eala beat France’s Diane Parry 6-3, 6-1 on Monday in the first round of the Ningbo Open, a WTA 500 event in China. It is her first win of the Asian swing and ends a three-match losing streak that ran through Singapore, the Asian Games and Wuhan.
Parry got one game in the second set
The first set was close early. Eala broke in the fifth game, got broken straight back, then won the next three games to take it 6-3. In the second set, Eala won the first four games. Parry’s one game came on Eala’s serve, and Eala won the next two to finish it.
What she said after Wuhan
Before Monday, Eala had lost to Tatiana Prozorova in Singapore, to China’s Wang Xiyu in the Asian Games semifinal (she took bronze) and to qualifier Han Shi in Wuhan. Each one went to a third set. Andrea Petkovic defended her after Wuhan, saying “Nothing about that is embarrassing.”
Eala said of the Ningbo draw that “there’s not going to be any easy matches,” and that she would take each match on its own. After the win, she said the Filipino crowd “really makes my job very fun even in the difficult moments.”
Parry was on a skid too
Parry came in having lost four straight and had not won a match since the first round of the US Open. She won her first WTA title this year in Monterrey. Monday was the first time she and Eala had played each other.
Where the ranking stands
Eala started 2026 outside the top 40 and reached a career-high No. 18 in August, after winning the Washington DC Open and becoming the first Filipina to win a WTA Tour singles title. She began Ningbo at No. 20. The win is projected to move her up, though no new ranking is confirmed yet.
Next up
In the round of 16, Eala plays the winner of Diana Shnaider and Yulia Putintseva. The Ningbo champion earns $185,500. Later, she has a WTA 250 in Hong Kong from November 2 to 8, then a homecoming exhibition against Indonesia’s Janice Tjen at Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan, to close her 2026 season.
