FILIPINO sensation and Globe Ambassador Alex Eala entered the top 1,000 of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings following her breakthrough win in Spain and a strong performance in the succeeding tournament.
The 15-year-old tennis prodigy is now at the 942nd spot after winning the first leg of the Rafa Nadal Academy International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour W15 Manacor in Mallorca.
Eala was on an incredible seven-match winning run against higher ranked and much older opponents, through the first and second legs of the ITF tour in Manacor.
Eala racked impressive victories against top seed and ITF singles world No. 2 Seone Mendez of Australia, No. 5 seed Carole Monnet of France and Adithya Karunaratne of Hong Kong to advance to the finals of the opening leg.
Eala, a Globe Ambassador since 2013, bucked an opening set loss to beat Yvonne Cavalle Reimers, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 to become the first Filipina to win an ITF event since 2015. It was also Eala’s first-ever professional women’s singles title.
The Rafa Nadal Academy scholar sustained her strong run in the second leg by shocking No. 2 Mirjam Bjorkland of Sweden in the opening round, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
She, however, ran into 21-year-old Swiss Ylena In-Albon and lost in straight-sets, 6-0, 6-3, last Friday, to end her winning run in the Manacor.
Eala decided to skip the final leg of the Rafa Nadal Academy ITF World Tour and instead will travel to France to compete in a tournament that will start on February 9 to boost her quest for another title and a chance to further improve her world ranking.