FILIPINO tennis ace Alex Eala fell from a career-best No. 29 to No. 45 at the latest Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings on Monday.
The 16-notch drop, the biggest for any player in this rankings update, came after Eala's round of 16 exit at the WTA 1000 Miami Open last week.
Eala yielded to Czech Karolina Muchova, 0-6, 2-6, on March 24.
The round of 16 finish gained Eala only 120 points, 270 short of the 390-point finish from her historic semifinal run in the tournament last year.
Eala's total ranking points thus dropped from 1,525 to 1,255, enabling many players to rise above her.
Defending her Miami Open crown, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka still leads the rankings with 11,025 points.
Kazakh Elena Rybakina runs second with 8,108 points followed by American Coco Gauff with 7,278.
Polish Iga Swiatek (7,263) and American Jessica Pegula (6,243) round out the top five in the rankings.
Aiming to bounce back in clay
Eala looks to recover the points she lost on the hard court as she begins her clay season.
The first stop for the Filipino sensation will be the 500-tier Linz Open in Austria this April 6 to 12.
Unlike in Miami where Eala had to defend 390 points, she has zero to defend at Linz this time since she wasn't competing in any event during the same tournament week last year.
Any points she will gain from her Linz debut this year will be an automatic net gain.
A semifinal finish at Linz will give Eala 195 points, elevating her total to 1,450, which is most likely enough to reach the top 30 anew.
Eala is listed in the main draw of the Linz Open, but needs to go through the qualifiers in her second stop which will be the Stuttgart Open in Germany where the 500-level competition runs from April 13 to 19.
The 20-year-old will then take her talent to the Madrid Open which would be her fifth 1000-tier tournament this year.
Eala is listed in the main draw of the competition which will run from April 21 to May 3.