Sourced online by Tracy Cabrera
MANILA — With her second main draw appearance in the United States Open made official, good fortune continues for Filipino tennis star Alexandra ‘Alex’ Eala as she is set to defend a mere 70 ranking points for the entirety of the upcoming North American swing.
With this in mind, the Filipina hotshot is poised to boost her Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking.
Eala sustained a left shoulder injury following her first-round exit at the National Bank Open in Toronto last year, and she found herself competing in only two Tour-level tournaments, which included the US Open, where she reached the second round to earn those 70 points.
After winning the WTA’s grass-court ‘Star of the Swing’ survey in landslide fan vote, the 21-year-old grabbed 10 points from her first-round appearance in Toronto and another 25 for her quarterfinal finish at the ITF W100 Cary Tennis Classic, but those yields failed to crack her active ‘Best 18’ tournament baseline in the last 52 weeks, keeping them from contributing to her current ranking cumulative of 1,666 points.
However, while the 70 points is still relatively low, world No. 29 Eala earned it from the US Open, which automatically counted toward her points total since it’s a Grand Slam tournament.
Still, with an expected decent run for the country’s pride in the 500 Mubadala D.C. Open, 1000 Toronto Open or the Cincinnati 1000 Open—her three stops before the US Open—fresh ranking points to her record will be added.
Tennis officials cited that a quarterfinal finish at Mubadala would make the difference for Eala, who stands to gain 108 ranking points and eclipse the 70 she earned during last year’s North American swing in just her first tournament of this year’s campaign.
But a semifinal finish (195 points), runner-up finish (325) or a championship finish (500) would even be better.
And considering the little margin separating Eala from world No. 28 Anastasia Potapova (1,667), No. 27 Emma Navarro (1,674) and No. 26 Barbora Krejcikova (1,679), a single deep run in any of the mentioned tournaments could vault her into the top 25 or even the top 20.
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