By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Wildcard entry Alex Eala faces another acid test on Wednesday when she clashes with American Madison Brengle at the start of the prestigious Miami Open.
While pressure is mounting, Eala, 16, did not go there unprepared.
She has trained religiously at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain for this 128-player field event for a chance to face some of the world’s finest players and make a name for herself.
If successful against Brengle, the 16-year-old Eala will have a chance to meet 29th seed Ludmilla Samsonova after the Russian earned an opening-round bye.
Other seeded players in the lower brackets are second seed Iga Swiatek, fourth seed Maria Sakkari, No. 7 Garbiñe Muguruza, No. 10 Jelena Ostapenko, and 14th seed Coco Gauff.
Brengle is Eala’s highest-ranked opponent by far in a flourishing career at No. 59. Eala is currently ranked No. 565.
The 31-year-old American has won two WTA singles titles and seven ITF doubles titles, and had reached the fourth round of the 2015 Australian Open singles.
In 2021, Brengle made it to the second round of the Roland Garros and third round at Wimbledon.
Brengle also boasts of upset victories of Top 10 players such as Serena Williams at the Auckland Open in 2017, Sofia Kenin at last year’s Wimbledon, and Petra Kvitova twice in the 2015 Stuttgart Open and 2016 Dubai Championships.
But Eala is expected to give it all out in her toughest match to date after playing several ITF tournaments.
She is coming off a Round of 16 finish at the W25 Joue-Les-Tour in France early March.
Last year, Eala earned a wildcard entry in the qualifiers of this WTA 1000 tournament but lost to Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova in the first round.
