Eala rises to 57th in WTA official rankings

September 17 ------ FILIPINO tennis hotshot Alexandra “Alex” Eala elevated from 61st to 57th in the latest official Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings. Eala jumped four places to move just a spot below her career-high 56th after a quarterfinal finish at the 250-tier São Paulo Open in Brazil.

The 20-year-old once leaped to a career-best 55th in the live rankings when she booked a quarterfinal spot in the aforementioned tourney last Thursday. The ranking movements in the next few days, though, officially placed Eala at 57th with 1,083 total ranking points. Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka still leads the rankings by a mile with 11,225 points.

Polish Iga Swiatek (7,933), American Coco Gauff (7,874), Amanda Anisimova (5,159) and Russian Mirra Andreeva (4,793) round out the top five. As for Eala, she defeated French Yasmine Mansouri, 6-0, 6-2, in the São Paulo opener and Argentine Julia Riera, 6-1, 6-4, in the second round.

The lefty netter yielded to eventual second placer Indonesian Janice Tjen, 4-6, 1-6, in the quarterfinals, halting her seven-game win streak. The first Filipino WTA champ, Eala will next compete at the Jingsha Open in China slated from Sept. 22 to 28. Eala is bound to be the top seed in the 125-tier tourney unless a higher ranked player makes a last-minute entry.

The other players competing in Jingsha are Russian Erika Andreeva, British Jodie Burrage, Chinese Xinyu Gao, Aussie Talia Gibson and Italian Tyra Grant.

Source: manilatimes.net