MANILA, Philippines — Filipino tennis ace Alexandra "Alex" Eala slipped to No. 46 at the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) live rankings on Saturday.
Eala has now fallen 17 notches from her career-best No. 29 which she achieved on March 16.
Unlike in the latest official rankings update last Monday when she dropped from No. 29 to 45, Eala did not lose any ranking points this time as her 1,255 stayed intact.
From No. 46 last Monday, American Peyton Steams elevated to 44 with 1,296 points following her round of 16 finish at the Charleston Open.
Stearns thus overtook Eala and previous No. 44 Marketa Vondrousova, dropping the Filipino to No. 46 and the Czech to No. 45, respectively.
Their new positions will reflect in the official rankings this upcoming Monday, April 6.
Losing 270 ranking points after failing to match her semifinal finish at the Miami Open last year, Eala looks to bounce back at the Linz Open slated from April 6 to 12 in Austria.
The 500-tier tournament marks the start of the clay season for the 20-year-old netter.
The official draw hasn't been released yet as of postingn time.
Linz has a new top seed with the last-minute addition of world No. 10 Mirra Andreeva.
Following Andreeva are defending champ and world No. 13 Ekaterina Alexandrova, No. 17 Clara Tauson, No. 21 Liudmila Samsonova, No. 23 Jelena Ostapenko, No. 29 Sorana Cirstea, No. 35 Jaqueline Cristian, and No. 37 Ann Li.
World No. 28 Emma Raducanu was supposed to be the No. 6 seed before her late withdrawal due to illness.
Eala was also supposed to be seeded but her drop from 45 to 29 in the rankings on March 30 denied her that.
After Linz, Eala will play another 500-level tourney at the Stuttgart Open in Germany set from April 13 to 19.
