Alex Eala is on track to reach a new career-high in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking despite an early exit in the Madrid Open last week.
Eala, 19, is set to reach No. 71 by Monday when the WTA rankings drop as she continues to earn more points by joining bigger and tougher competitions.
The Rafael Nadal Academy graduate, whose current WTA ranking is at No. 72, fell short against world No. 2 Iga Swiatek of Poland, 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, last Thursday at the Pista Manolo Santana in Madrid.
With Eala already within the Top 100 of the WTA rankings, she is set to make her main draw debut in the French Open, which will be held from 25 May to 8 June at the Roland Garros Stadium.
But before she makes her much-awaited Grand Slam debut in the professional scene, Eala will have three more tournaments lined up to prepare herself.
First, there is the Catalonia Open, a WTA 125 tourney, which will be held on Monday at the Vic Tennis Club in Spain where she will face the likes of world No. 57 Kateřina Siniaková of the Czech Republic and world No. 25 and Filipino-Canadian Leylah Fernandez.
Then, she will fly to Italy for the Italian Open in Rome that will be held from 6 to 18 May.
With the Italian Open being her third WTA 1000 competition after the Miami Open last March and the Madrid Open this April, Eala is set to face not only Swiatek Grand Slam champions like Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, Madison Keys of the United States, and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.
Eala will also compete in the Parma Ladies Open in Italy from 12 to 18 May before joining the French Open.
“Sometime ago, my dad told me, ‘If you want to be a lion, you have to live in the den.’ I’ve earned my place in the den — and, I like to think, I’m a lion in the making,” Eala said.
