Eala jumps to No. 38 in WTA world rankings ahead of Strasbourg

ALEXANDRA “ALEX” EALA has returned inside the Top 40 world rankings leading up to the Strasbourg Open and her much-awaited stint in the French Open, the queen of clay.

From No. 42, Ms. Eala climbed to No. 38 in the latest Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings, thanks to a breakthrough run in the Italian Open last week.

Ms. Eala has now 1,340 points, collecting a gain of 55 points after reaching the third round of a clay tournament for the first time in her career. She bowed to world No. 2 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, 6-4, 6-3, in the Round of 64 of the 1000-level tour in Rome.

The 20-year-old Filipino hovered at the Top 40s for almost two months since a 16-spot drop in March from a career-best No. 29 after falling short of defending her ranking points in the Miami Open.

Ms. Eala reached the Final Four last year but settled for Round of 16 this time around, thus losing 270 ranking points to fall all the way to No. 45.

Slowly but surely though, the lefty ace is regaining her ground just in time for the season’s second Grand Slam, the queen of clay at the Roland Garros, on May 24 to June 7 in Paris.

Ms. Eala will also play doubles in the French Open with the 19-year-old Canadian star Victoria Mboko, world No. 9 and the No. 1 seed in Strasbourg, for their first team-up after two meetings in their young careers.

But first things first for Ms. Eala, who was to play qualifier and No. 66 Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine at press time in the first round of the WTA 500 Strasbourg serving as the pre-tournament of the French Open in a city near Paris.

The 25-year-old Ms. Oliynikova beat No. 75 Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in the finals of the two-round qualifiers.

Ms. Eala, the No. 1 seed in the qualifiers, advanced straight to the main draw after replacing late pull-out Hailey Baptiste of the United States.

Aside from the Italian Open, Ms. Eala also fine-tuned her bearings in the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open in Austria (second round), the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany (first round) and the Mutua Madrid Open (second round) that helped her climb the WTA rankings once more.

In the doubles however, Ms. Eala slid from a career-best of No. 88 to No. 115 after a pair of first-round exits in the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, both against the powerhouse duo of Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova (world No. 1) and USA’s Taylor Townsend (world No. 2).

Ms. Eala and Turkish partner Zeynep Sonmez absorbed a 6-1, 7-5 defeat in Madrid before another beating in Rome, 6-2, 6-1, with American partner Ms. Baptiste. — John Bryan Ulanday