By MARK REY MONTEJO
Filipina ace Alex Eala fell five rungs in the latest Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) world rankings.The 19-year-old Eala felt the damage of her short-lived campaigns this year and dropped to 139th with 528 points in the singles list.
Eala is now the second ranking Southeast Asian bet behind Thai Mananchaya Sawangkaew (666 points) who rose to 115th.
Completing the WTA’s Top 5 are global tennis stars in Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka (8956), Poland’s Iga Swiatek (8770), USA’s Coco Gauff (6538), Italy’s Jasmine Paolini (5288), and American Jessica Pegula (4861).
The two-time Asian Games bronze medalist was last seen in action in India, where she was off to a promising start but eventually yielded in the singles and doubles events of ITF W100 Bengaluru and L&T Mumbai Open.
She also had a quick exit in the Singapore Open qualifiers after bowing to Swiss Simona Waltert, 6-3, 6-2, in the second round.
Earlier this year, Eala made it to the semifinals of the Workday Canberra International but lost her spark and was outclassed by Chinese Wei Sijia, 7-5, 6-2.
