FILIPINO tennis ace and world No. 20 Alex Eala climbed two spots to a career-high No. 18 with 2,166 points in the WTA live rankings ahead of her Cincinnati Open debut on Saturday.
Seeded No. 17 in the 1000-tier tournament with a first-round bye, Eala was set to face world No. 74 Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania in the second round (round of 64) Saturday at 11 p.m. in Manila.
If Eala beats Ruse, she will face either Zeynep Sönmez or Amanda Anisimova in the third round.
Jasmine Paolini and Ekaterina Alexandrova having their points from last year's Cincinnati and Monterey tournaments deducted from their total enabled Eala's rise.
The live rankings indicated a net loss of 649 points for world No. 15 Paolini who reached the Cincinnati final last year, falling to No. 20 this time with a 2,124 total.
On the other hand, the live rankings system wiped out 375 points from Alexandrova, which she gained for reaching the Cincinnati round of 16 (120) and the Monterrey Open final (255) this time last year.
Alexandrova thus dropped from No. 18 to 19.
Paolini will permanently lose those points since she withdrew due to a nagging left foot injury, while the healthy Alexandrova will have a chance to defend her points from last year.
Should Eala beat Ruse, the Filipino will rise to No. 17 provided that current No. 17 holder Sorana Cirstea lost her match against Nikola Bartunkova in their round of 64 clash.
A win by Eala would give her 2,221 points, enough to surpass Cirstea's current 2,184.
A win by Cirstea would boost her total to 2,239 which would keep her and Eala's current live ranking the same.
The official WTA rankings will be frozen until this 1000-tier Cincinnati tournament concludes, so any ranking movement will not reflect on Monday, August 17.
The next official ranking update will be on August 24 when the tournament is over.
That new leaderboard will also be the basis for the US Open seedings.
