FILIPINO tennis sensation Alex Eala is seeded No. 2 in the juniors competition of the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris, France.
The 16-year-old Globe ambassador is coming off to a rousing performance in the women’s doubles event of the W25 Platja D’Aro in Spain where she finished second with Russian partner Oksana Selekhmeteva.
Eala is currently the third best junior player in the world and ranked a career best 624th in the Women’s Tennis Association Tour.
Eala, however, will be the International Tennis Federation’s No. 2 seed in the juniors tournament of the third Grand Slam event of the year.
Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra is the tournament top seed while Russians Polina Kuedemetova is third and Diana Shnaider is No. 4. American Robin Montgomery is the fifth seed.
Eala is looking forward to surpassing her performance last year when she reached the semifinals at Roland Garros. She partnered with Priska Nugroho of Indonesia to win the girls’ doubles tournament at the Australian Open.
Eala, a Rafa Nadal Academy scholar, bagged her first women’s singles professional title in January at the Rafa Nadal Academy World Tour in Manacor, Spain, coming back from an opening-set loss to beat home favorite Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the final.
She then reached the quarterfinals of her next three tournaments and had decent showing in her singles campaign in Bellinzona, Switzerland; Grenoble, France; and Manacor, Spain.
Eala also had a stint in the qualifying tournament of the Miami Open last March.
The French Open Juniors Championships start on Saturday.