WTA Weekly: Fernandez wins Singapore Open; Eala struggles
Leylah Fernandez won her first title of the 2026 season in Singapore while Alex Eala crashed out in the first round in the WTA 500. Elsewhere, Czechia won their first Billie Jean King Cup title since 2018.
Czechia took home a 12th Billie Jean King Cup title after taking out Ukraine 2-0 in the final while Leylah Fernandez and Talia Gibson win first titles up for grabs in Asia.
BJK Cup
Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova cleaned up in emphatic fashion to take down Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina and Elina Svitolina as Czechia secured the crown in Shenzhen, China.
Muchova dropped just five games vs Kalinina as she took it 6-2,6-3 while it was the newly crowned Wimbledon champion that sealed the title for her nation with a 6-3,7-6 victory over Svitolina.
Such is the depth in Czechia tennis right now, the country didn't lose a set, never mind a match, en route to the title, taking out Great Britain, Spain and before beating Ukraine.
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The WTA season has been one of Czech dominance, with eight WTA singles titles won by Czechs, including the Wimbledon crown.
Six Czechs occupy a spot in the WTA top 50 which is the second most by any nation, only beaten by the United States on nine. For what it's worth, Czechia has a population 10.9 million, dwarfed by that of the US which is home to 342.6 million.
Why are there so many Czech plays succeeding in tennis?
This year's all-Czech Wimbledon final between eventual champion Noskova and runner-up Muchova prompted the question — why are there so many Czechs at the top of the game? Ahead of the final at SW19, Martina Navratilova, winner of 18 major titles, told the BBC: "There are clubs everywhere [in the Czech Republic], every small town has two, three or four clay courts and there is so much more good coaching now.
"And competition — have lots of tournaments and they play sets when they go to the club, they don’t just hit balls, they play sets and learn how to compete in singles and doubles, which teaches you to be a better tennis player.
"That’s why you see the Czechs all have a complete game. Even the baseliners can still volley," Czech-born Navratilova said.
What happened at the Singapore Open?
Dropping just one seta all week, Leylah Fernandez lifted a sixth WTA title of her career in the Singapore WTA 500 as she took down Talia Gibson 7-5, 6-0 in the final.
Even after sealing the title, Fernandez still has a negative win-loss ratio, at 22-23, illustrating what has been an underwhelming year thus far for the Canadian.
Meanwhile, finalist Gibson managed to pick up a win over Maria Sakkari in the quarter-finals before a walkover in the semis gave her an automatic pass to the final.
It was Gibson's first ever WTA final after making eight on the lower levels of the circuit.
Who won in Seoul?
Kimberly Birrell picked up a first WTA title of her career in the Seoul 250.
Having lost her two previous finals on the main tour, Seoul proved to be third-time lucky for Birrell, beating fellow Australian May Joint 6-4 6-2 to seal the title.
Joint made a fast start, and earned an early break in the first set, before the eventual champion won four games in a row to take control of the match.
Birrell beat Tamara Zidansek, Yexin Ma, Katie Volynets and Anna Bondar on her way to the final, where she broke new ground.
It has been a tough 2026 for Joint, but light may be at the end of the tunnel with her run to the final in the South Korean capital. The world number 75 made a bright start to the year, reaching the quarter-final in Adelaide, but that was followed by a six-month losing streak that saw her ranking plummet.
Meanwhile, Alex Eala's stint in Singapore was short-lived as she endured a three-set loss to Tatiana Prozorova in one of the shocks of the Asian swing so far. Eala was much-fancied in Singapore, after what has been a fruitful season for the Filipina, having sealed her first main tour title in Washington in July. But the world number 18 toiled in the indoor conditions and Prozorova punished her, hitting 52 winners against an unusually sluggish Eala.
Next up during the Asian swing is the WTA 1000 event in Beijing, where some of the tour's biggest hitters are in action, including newly anointed world number one Elena Rybakina.
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