Alex Eala set for Strasbourg Open ahead of Roland Garros

May 16 ------ Fresh off her breakthrough run in Rome, Alex Eala is set to continue her clay court campaign at the Internationaux de Strasbourg from May 17 to 23 in France.

As of Thursday morning, the 20-year-old Filipina is still in the qualifying round of the WTA 500 event, one of the final major warmup tournaments before the French Open in Paris which runs from May 24 to June 7. The Strasbourg tournament features a 28-player singles main draw and has long served as an important preparation event for Roland Garros since its establishment in 1987.

Interestingly, the tournament’s most recent champion is world No. 2 Elena Rybakina, whom Eala just faced in the Round of 32 of the Italian Open in Rome. Previous Strasbourg champions also include Madison Keys and Elina Svitolina. Among the players currently entered in the Strasbourg main draw are Hailey Baptiste, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Leylah Fernandez, Magdalena Fręch, Keys, Iva Jovic, Maya Joint, Wang Xinyu, and Clara Tauson. Also listed are Liudmila Samsonova, Maria Sakkari, Emma Navarro, Ann Li, Jaqueline Cristian, Cristina Bucșa, Marie Bouzková, and Sara Bejlek.

Eala heads into Strasbourg carrying momentum after reaching the Round of 32 in Rome, where she picked up impressive wins over Wang Xinyu and Fręch before falling to Rybakina. Meanwhile, Eala is partnering with Victoria Mboko in the doubles of Roland Garros as the list of doubles teams have been released. Mboko is one of the fastest rising tennis stars like Eala.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com