FILIPINO sensation Alexandra “Alex” Eala earned the No. 17 seed at the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 Cincinnati Open, which runs from Aug. 13 to 23.
The WTA revealed the player list Tuesday midnight with world No. 20 Eala claiming her highest seed in a 1000-tier competition yet.
World No. 6 Karolina Muchova, No. 12 Victoria Mboko and No. 15 Jasmine Paolini withdrew their participation in Cincinnati, enabling Eala to get a seed three notches higher than her actual ranking.
Seeded players get first-round byes and won’t face fellow seeded players in the second and third rounds.
The Cincinnati singles draw ceremony is set on Tuesday at 3 p.m. local time or Wednesday at 3 a.m. in Manila.
Eala just ended her National Bank Open campaign on Monday, falling to Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, 4-6, 0-6.
That ended Eala’s seven-match winning streak bridging her perfect run to her first Tour-level title at the 500 Mubadala D.C. Open in Washington.
Eala also played doubles in Toronto, where she and American icon Venus Williams fell to the Russian-Japanese duo of Liudmila Samsonova and Miyu Kato, 4-6, 3-6, in the first round.
The 21-year-old Eala earned $89,700, or more than P5.4 million, in prize money from her singles fourth-round finish and doubles first round appearance.
Having played nine matches in 13 days, Eala seeks a little breather before she makes her debut in Cincinnati.
She was supposed to play last year but withdrew due to a shoulder injury.
“I definitely will take maybe two days off, a day or two. I do have to travel to Cincinnati. I need to get a haircut. I haven’t gotten a haircut in a while. My nails are grown out,” said Eala in the post-match presser.
“So, yeah, I’ll do a couple things, just to get my mind off tennis. I think Toronto’s a great place to do that.”
The other top players joining Cincinnati are world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2 Elena Rybakina, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 4 Coco Gauff and No. 5 Mirra Andreeva.
