Filipino tennis star Alex Eala has been stealing all the headlines lately. After she won her historic Junior Grand Slam Championship at the last US Open, she continued competing in tournaments on the ITF circuit, aiming to improve her professional standing.
And after a month filled with matches, she has done exactly that. From her previous career-high WTA ranking of 248th, she ends October reaching a new milestone: 214th in the world.
Reaching new heights
Alex Eala just concluded a very busy October. She opened the month with a main draw in the W60 Templeton, and immediately after a second-round loss, she went on to reach the quarterfinals of the W80 in Rancho Santa Fe.
Two weeks later, she was in Hamburg for another W60 tournament, where she again reached the second round. The following week, she flew to France for the W80 Poitiers tournament, where she reached the semifinal.
Her performance at the W80 in Poitiers, France may have been her most impressive. Not only did she upset higher-ranked and older competitors, including Jessika Ponchet and Ana Konjuh, but it was also her first time reaching a semifinal in an $80,000 tournament.
Following her semifinal appearance, she ended her October in the qualifying draw of the W100 Shrewsbury. Although she made it past the first round of qualifying, she lost in the second round to 24-year-old Maia Lumsden.
However, despite her loss to Lumsden in the qualifiers of the recent W100 Shrewsbury, her recent run of performances propelled her to her new career-high WTA ranking of 214. At the beginning of 2022, she started at 529th.
In just a month, the Filipino has reached new heights and achieved new milestones in her professional career. With her performances, she is sure to gain more confidence as she continues to search for her third professional title, after winning her second in the W25 Chiang Rai last April.