By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Alex Eala jumped to a career-high No. 191 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings following her stint in Japan.
Eala, 18, improved four notches from No. 195 after finishing in the second round of the W100 Tokyo, as well as in the first round of the Japan Open Tennis Championships in Osaka.
In both tournaments, Eala had to go through two qualifying matches to make it to the main draw.
The W100 Tokyo is a $100,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) event while the Japan Open is a $250,000 WTA tournament.
Eala, however, is coming off a first-round loss to third seed Tatjana Maria of Germany on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 6-3, 6-0, at the Guangzhou Open in China, another WTA200 event.
Like in her previous high-ranked tournaments, Eala threaded through two qualifying matches to barge into the main draw.
But Maria, whom Eala met – and lost – twice, was still too much to handle.
Despite the early exit, Eala is using the competition as a training ground for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China slated on Sept. 23.
Tennis competitions in the quadrennial event will start on Sept. 24 at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre.
Eala joins veteran Davis Cuppers Ruben Gonzales and Francis Casey Alcantara in the tournament with high hopes of ending the country’s medal drought in the sport.
The last time a Filipino went home with an Asian Games medal was in 2006 in Doha, Qatar where Fil-Ams Cecil Mamiit and Eric Taino bagged two bronze medals – Mamiit in the singles before teaming up with Taino in the men’s doubles.
