Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.
— Scottish politician Walter Elliot
Similar to her steady rise from world No. 140 in singles in early 2025 to her present Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking at No. 42 as of May 4, 2026, our country’s pride Alexandra “Alex” Eala is also climbing in the doubles category, where she is now ranked No. 88.
Alex, who is about to celebrate her 21st birthday on the 23rd day of the month, added 120 points to her doubles tally, improving her standing by 13 notches and eclipsing her previous career-best ranking.
At the recently concluded Madrid Mutua Open, Eala partnered with Turkish ace Zeynep Sönmez and reached the Round of 16. The two opened strong with a decisive win over the Taiwanese-Hungarian tandem of Chan Hao-ching and Fanny Stollar before exiting against eventual champions Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the United States.
Our tennis idol has also seen improvement in singles, rising to No. 42 ahead of the Italian Open. In Madrid singles play, she outclassed Russian rival Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the opening round but was later stopped from advancing by Belgian upstart Elise Mertens.
Looking ahead, our tennis princess will be competing in the Strasbourg qualifiers before making her return to Paris, France, to compete in this year’s French Open, also known as Roland Garros, marking her second appearance in the prestigious Grand Slam event.
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