ALEX Eala inched closer to barging into the Top 200 of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings after setting a new career-high buoyed by a string of commendable performances in Europe.
The Filipina tennis pride jumped 34 notches from No. 248 to No. 214 as she opted to focus more on scaling the women’s professional circuit ranks in her budding career.
Ms. Eala, only 17 years old, had her best performance in the W80 Poitiers in France, where she made a breakthrough semifinal appearance in a tough $80,000 tournament.
That was despite coming all the way from the qualifying draw as an unseeded player to cap off a magnificent October with stints in the United States and Germany as well.
Up against more seasoned foes, the lefty wunderkind also made her mark in the W60 Hamburg in Germany (Round of 16), W80 Rancho Sante Fe (quarterfinals) and W60 Templeton in California (Round of 16) this past month.
She had a chance to soar higher in the WTA list over the weekend but she fell short in the qualifying draw finals of the W100 Shrewsbury in Great Britain.
Ms. Eala, a scholar of the Rafael Nadal Academy, is a holder of two pro titles in Spain and Thailand as she continued her WTA ascend.
In the juniors, she’s coming off a historic conquest in the 2022 US Open to become the first Filipina singles Grand Slam champion on top of her two doubles titles in the 2020 Australian Open and 2021 French Open. — John Bryan Ulanday
