Filipina tennis sensation Alex Eala reaches No. 252 at the WTA rankings after reaching the quarterfinals in the elite W80 Rancho Sante Fepp
Alex Eala continues to climb the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), jumping 29 notches to peak at No. 252 in the women’s professional circuit after a quarterfinal finish in the elite W80 Rancho Santa Fe in California over the weekend.
The 17-year-old prodigy showed mastery in Santa Fe with four wins in the qualifying draw, sweeping Latvia’s Deniza Marcinkevica and USA’s Alana Smith before besting American Dalayna Hewitt and Canadian Katherine Sebov to make the final 8.
In her first $80,000 tournament, the teen bowed out of the competition, losing to Marcela Zacarias of Mexico, 6-2, 7-5, in the quarterfinal.
The junior tennis star also made it to the second round of W60 Templeton also in California this month.
The US Open girls singles champion already broke a 23-year-old record held by a fellow Filipina Maricris Fernandez-Gentz at 284th in the world by becoming the highest ranked female tennis player from the Philippines when she reached 280th last August.
With this leap, Eala is now the Philippines’ fourth-highest ranked tennis player in the history of the Open era, just behind former Philippine men’s tennis stars Cecil Mamiit, Eric Taino, and Felix Barrientos.
Mamiit still holds the top spot as he ranked No. 72 in the ATP rankings in 1999 after reaching the second round of the Australian Open and the US Open.
Meanwhile in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior rankings, the Filipina currently holds the 33rd spot after her historic run at the US Open Juniors where she ended up bagging the cup in New York to add to her collection of juniors doubles trophies from the 2020 Australian Open and the 2021 French Open.
Eala also remains the highest ranked Southeast Asian in the world with Thailand’s 29-year-old Peangtarn Plipuech coming in second in the region at 342nd.
Tags: #tennis, #Filipina, #US Open