After seizing the No. 15 spot in the WTA live race to the Finals on Wednesday (April 8) last week, tennis sensation Alexandra ‘Alex’ Eala is now listed as No. 46 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) official rankings, but the Filipina standout still has many points to gain to make the top eight which merits a spot in the season-ending WTA Finals in November.
Eala, who is No. 19 in the official race with 711 ranking points, made the leap after advancing to the 500 Linz Open round of 16 with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Austrian Julia Grabher. The round of 32 victory boosted her standing with 60 ranking points, bringing her total to 771.
The live race is led by world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus who has 3,800 points while at No. 8 as of this writing is world No. 10 and Linz Open top seed Mirra Andreeva with 1,369 points.
In the meantime, Eala enters the WTA 500 Stuttgart Open in Germany with a tough match right away against unpredictable five-time WTA champion Leylah Fernandez in the opening round this Monday.
While representing Canada, Fernandez is of Filipino descent with her mother is Filipino-Canadian and her father is Ecuadorian. With this in mind, the face off is considered by most fans as a battle between a homegrown Filipino talent and a global one.
Fans are excited to see the expected tight battle between the two as Fernandez, officially ranked 21 notches higher than her rival, could give Eala a real ‘run-for-her-money’. The Canadian has a career-best No. 13 ranking while Eala’s career-high was No. 29.
In the view of former British No. 1 Greg Rusedski, Eala needs to add more facets to her game to compete consistently with the world’s best players.
The Briton gave his views on a recent edition of his podcast ‘Off Court With Greg Rusedski’, and described the 20-year-old Filipina star: “She’s like Manny Pacquiao, and they’re always so hungry for a new superstar (in the Philippines).”
“She’s a lovely girl, she’s been at the Rafael Nadal academy for multiple years. We talked about the serve getting better. It’s gonna be harder for people to hit a hole through her (on clay), it’s gonna be much more physically combative,” he added.
Rusedski continued: “Being at the academy with Rafa on clay, he’s spent a lot of time with her, so she knows what to do.
“I’d love to see her in the top 20; she is great for the WTA. We need more stars, we need more names, and we need new people. And she opens up a marketplace, and people just love her.
“Anywhere around the world where there are people from the Philippines, they’re always talking about her: ‘What meal can I cook for her? What can I do?’
“Automatically, her matches sell out, and for me, she is a huge, huge positive. I’d love to see her, on this surface, crack the top 20 in the world.”
Well said from a high-hat citizen of His Majesty the King of England . . .
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