MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala is on her way back to the United States to begin her training camp for the upcoming hard-court season.
Eala departed on Monday after spending a week in Manila, where she attended several events, including a meet-and-greet with fans and a courtesy visit to Malacañang Palace.
With her commitments in the Philippines now behind her, the Filipina tennis star is shifting her full focus to the hard-court swing.
Her first tournament will be the Mubadala Open in Washington, D.C., which gets underway next week.
Ahead of the tournament, Eala slipped one spot to No. 29 in the latest WTA rankings released on Monday. Despite the drop, she remained on 1,666 ranking points.
Former Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic climbed from No. 32 to No. 26 after winning the Athens Open, a WTA 250 event in Greece, to improve her total to 1,680 points.
Despite the slight drop in the rankings, Eala is expected to have an opportunity to climb back up once her hard-court campaign begins.
She is one of the seeded players in the Mubadala Open singles draw and will also compete in the doubles event alongside former Grand Slam champion Venus Williams of the United States.
“It’s a continuous process, my journey in professional tennis. It’s already been so long, but it’s only getting started,” Eala said.
The Filipina star is not setting any specific expectations for the tournament, choosing instead to approach it one match at a time.
“I don’t have a specific round where I say, ‘Kailangan kong habulin ’to.’ The way that I approach tournaments is match by match, round by round. I hope to get as far as I can. The ultimate goal is to win, but I take things round by round,” Eala said. TMT
