The Asian duo of Eudice Chong and En-Shuo Liang bucked a first-set loss to beat the U.S. pair of Quinn Gleason and Sabrina Santamaria, 2-6, 7-6(2), 10-6, and win the doubles crown of the WTA 125 Philippine Women’s Open on Friday at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
After the match, Chong acknowledged that Gleason and Santamaria outplayed them considerably in the opening set, with the latter duo leaning on quick smashes and powerful serves. But the Asian pair ultimately figured out their U.S.-based counterparts, whom they practiced with earlier this week, according to Eudice Chong. Evidently, that helped in their furious fightback.
“We actually practiced with them this week, and we got a sense of how we were going to play this match,” Chong said. “They just started off better than we did, executing a lot of shots and making us play a lot more points and forcing mistakes from us.”
Inaugural Champions Hoping for Bigger Tournament
Chong and Liang are naturally stoked by their historic championship, as they became the first champions of the inaugural Philippine Women’s Open. And they only have good things to say, not only about the tournament itself, but about the Philippines as a whole.
“We’re really happy to be the first winners of doubles of this tournament, and I really enjoyed my time here,” Liang told reporters. “It’s a very good tournament for me, so I hope this tournament would be bigger and bigger, like a [WTA] 250, 500 one day.”
Chong echoed Liang’s sentiments while also noting the incredible growth of tennis in the country. She should know, as she played here in an Under-14 tournament for the Asian Tennis Federation back in 2010 as a wide-eyed 14-year-old kid.
“The last time I was here was, I think, 16 years ago, playing an under-14 tournament,” Chong recalled. “It’s been an amazing thing to see how tennis has grown throughout the years and coming here at the same venue. I played here as well, and just to see how much has developed and how many people have come out to support us has been incredible. And we’re very honored that we’re the first winners of this tournament…”
Finally, Eudice Chong and En-Shou Liang seem to agree on one thing more: They’d be more than happy to come back to the Philippines to play tennis.
