FROM the qualifying round to just one win away from contending for the crown.

Alex Eala continued to sizzle, pocketing a fourth straight win by shocking World No. 42 Dayana Yastremska, 6-1, 6-2, in their quarterfinal duel of the 2025 Lexus Eastbourne Open late Thursday night (Philippine time), June 26, in Great Britain.

With the win, the World No. 74 Eala, who needed to go through the qualifying round to make it to the main draw, secured her first semifinal appearance on the grass court of a WTA-sanctioned tournament.

After the dominant win over the Ukranian Yastremska, Eala now guns for a championship berth with a familiar foe standing in her way.

Eala’s semifinal opponent will be France’s Varvara Gracheva, who didn’t break a sweat in advancing to the Final 4 after scoring a walkover quarterfinal win over the No. 2 seed Barbora Krejcikova of Czech.

Eala will have the psychological advantage in the semis as she had just defeated Gracheva, who went as high as No. 39 in the world rankings. The two met in the opening round of the Nottingham Open qualifiers two weeks ago with Eala scoring a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory.

The other semifinal duel pits Australian Maya Joint and Asutralian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.(CCM)

• Tags
• #Alex Eala
• #Dayana Yastremska
• #2025 Eastbourne Open
• #Great Britain
• #World No. 74
• #WTA
• #Varvara Gracheva
• #Barbora Krejcikova
• #Czech