The Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington was all set to welcome the electric pairing of Alexandra Eala and Venus Williams this year in their doubles draw, but the pair’s plan to split their team before the event has put a pin in the organizers’ plans. A day after Williams, Eala spoke about what drove her to the decision to withdraw from doubles.

“I have so much respect for Venus. I am so grateful for every opportunity that I have to be around her, to learn from her, to hit with her. But I do think this is my first week coming back, and I think that Venus is someone who deserves a partner who can give their all physically, emotionally, mentally when they’re on court with her. I think right now I can only do that for singles,” said Eala in her press conference. “I don’t have the capacity yet to be able to give that in both singles and doubles. I’m really grateful for the opportunity that I had, or have, and hopefully we see more of it in the future.”

Coming into Washington, this will be Eala’s first event since the grass court season, where the Filipino player had a great run of 12 wins and 4 losses. She won the W125 title in Birmingham and had a decent run at the Berlin Open, where she reached the semifinal after securing victories over high-quality opponents like Elena Rybakina and Elina Svitolina. She had a huge Wimbledon moment, as she took out the defending champion, Iga Swiatek, in straight sets in the third round, before going out to Jasmine Paolini in the fourth round.

Coming back from such a long grass-court season, which was both physically and emotionally draining on her, one could argue that Eala’s decision to focus on singles to begin the hard-court season is a pragmatic one. However, fans in Washington would have been eager to see the pair of Eala and Williams, especially after the duo had won a doubles match together at the Bad Homburg Open this year. The pair did not team up at Wimbledon, as Williams was set to play with Serena, but that did not come to pass owing to the latter’s injury.

Williams has already gotten a new partner, as she will enter the doubles draw in Washington with Diana Shnaider, along

with playing against Anastasia Potapova in the first round of singles. On the other hand,  Eala will begin her singles campaign against Zheng Qinwen.

Alexandra Eala Will Begin Her Campaign at Washington Against Zheng Qinwen

Having last played on July 6, Eala will begin her North American swing with a first-round encounter against Zheng Qinwen in the first round in Washington. Eala’s hard-court results have not been as high as her results on grass, but she did have some decent results, like reaching the semifinal in Auckland, and having fourth-round finishes at Indian Wells and Miami.

Once ranked as high as No.4 in the world, injuries and a loss of form have seen Zheng Qinwen go down below the top 100 on the WTA Rankings. The Olympic champion has an 11-11 win-loss record this year, with a modest 6-4 mark on hard courts. She did have her best result of the season last week in Athens, where she lost to Barbora Krejcikova in the quarterfinals.

Even though Zheng might have the better technical tools to overpower Eala on a hard court, the Filipino player’s confidence would be sky-high after her grass-court exploits. She is currently ranked No.28 on the WTA Rankings, and with not many points to defend in the upcoming months, Eala could make a real play for the Top 20 if she had a few deep runs on the hard-court events.