Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
Alex Eala maintained her spot in the latest Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings after her early exit at the 2024 Australian Open qualifiers in Melbourne.
The 18-year-old tennis sensation stayed at No. 187 in the singles rankings following her 6-2, 7-5 loss to Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson in the first round of the said Grand Slam qualifiers.
Eala, however, opened the year with a career-high ranking at No. 185.
She is expected to further boost her ranking and title campaign when she sees action in the W50 Pune competition in India starting Jan. 22 to Jan 28.
In the latest acceptance list of the said $50,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) event, Eala is the fourth highest seeded player behind Latvia’s Darja Semenistaja (No. 144), Anastasia Tikhonova (No. 155) and Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima (No. 172).
Eala hopes to further eclipse her successful season last year, where she snagged two ITF singles titles — in the W25 Roehampton and W25 Yecla hardcourt events.
She also made history by winning bronze in the women’s singles and mixed doubles with Francis Casey Alcantara in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Overall, she has won four ITF singles titles since playing in the pros in 2021. — Kristel Satumbaga-Villar
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Credit belongs to: www.mb.com.ph
