Noskova reasserts mastery over Eala in Berlin semifinals

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Linda Noskova still has Alex Eala’s number after booting her out of the Berlin Open, 6-2, 6-4, in the semifinal stage on June 21, 2026, at the Steffi Graf Stadion in Germany.

With the win, the Czech netter extended her winning streak over Eala, replicating her 2-0 sweep when they first met at Indian Wells in California on March 11, 2026.

Despite the shift from hard court to grass, Noskova displayed the exact game plan to crack Eala as she immediately set the tone with her flat forehand returns that prevented the Filipina from gaining any groundstroke rhythm.

Unlike in her previous wins over World No. 2 Elena Rybakina and World No. 6 Elina Svitolina, Eala faced a different breed in Noskova, as the relentless Czech consistently countered her on-point return game with a barrage of flat hits from the baseline.

Aside from her groundstroke accuracy, Noskova also had a big serving game, tallying free points with nine service aces.

In retrospect, Eala also struggled to handle Noskova’s powerful and tricky serving game in California, where the World No. 13 WTA player finished the win with seven service aces.

The second set became a dogfight early on as Noskova raced to a commanding 3-1 lead, only for Eala to erase it by winning three consecutive games to take the lead, 4-3.

Eala showed some signs of life after scoring a crucial break point while holding big service possessions to move two games away from equalizing.

The 21-year-old netter took advantage of Noskova’s sloppy errors midway through the set as she set up her topspin forehand bombs with a 1-2 pattern play of a wide-targeted backhand followed by a crafty volley in the midcourt.

However, Noskova showed she still had enough gas left in the tank after regrouping quickly, answering with her own 3-0 run that frustrated Eala.

After the semifinal showdown, Noskova capped the huge win with 63 total points won, including nine service aces, five break points, and 27 return points.

On the other hand, Eala finished with 40 points won, two service aces, and two break points, but struggled on the receiving end with only 18 points.

Despite the loss, Eala still had a stellar campaign in the WTA 500 event after bagging back-to-back straight-set wins over World No. 2 Rybakina and World No. 6 Svitolina to reach the semifinals.

Heads up, Alex, tuloy pa rin ang laban!