Alex Eala rises to world No. 228 after strong performances in her last three ITF events, including winning her first pro title of the year
MANILA, Philippines – After close to half a year of experiencing a downward trend in her standing in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) pro circuit, Filipina teen tennis star Alex Eala not only arrested her slide but also saw an upward swing in her world ranking.
Eala saw a steep decline in her world ranking after enduring a rough start to her 2023 season as she failed to make it past the second round in her first eight tournaments of the year in the WTA and International Tennis Federation (ITF) Tours.
The 18-year-old Eala, last year’s US Open girl’s singles champion, reached a career-high world ranking of 214th in October 2022, the highest ranking reached by a Filipina tennis player. She ended 2022 at 217th, good enough to be the highest-ranked Southeast Asian in the world.
Her subpar results in the first four months of the year caused her world ranking to plummet to 266th in late May, her lowest ranking in over half a year.
All that changed for Eala as she strung together solid performances in the three ITF W25 events she joined.
The Filipina tennis ace made the quarterfinals of the W25 Monastir in Tunisia on May 26, the deepest she had gone in a tournament this year.
She followed this up in impressive fashion by emerging champion of the W25 Yecla in Spain last June 4, capturing her third pro ITF crown.
The following week saw Eala back on the court in Spain, where she secured another quarterfinals appearance in the W25 Madrid.
Eala’s recent strong performance powered her rise in the WTA rankings.
As of June 12, or right after the French Open, Eala sits at 228th in the world, a jump of 38 spots.
She is 40 rungs higher than the next Southeast Asian in the list, world No. 268th Priska Nugroho of Indonesia, who incidentally was Eala’s partner when she won the 2020 Australian Open girls’ doubles championship.
Eala will have another chance to ascend further in the world ranking as she is set to join the W40 Palma del Rio in Spain that is scheduled to begin on June 26. – Rappler.com
