WITH a rematch against Chinese Wang Xinyu at stake, Filipino tennis ace Alexandra “Alex” Eala battles Polish Magdalena Frech in the first round of the WTA 1000 Italian Open in Rome on Wednesday.
No official time for the match had been indicated at press time on Tuesday but it’s likely set late Wednesday afternoon or evening in Manila, if not late night.
As the No. 31 seed in the tournament, world No. 33 Wang received a first-round bye and just awaits the victor between Eala and Frech in the round of 128.
World No. 42 Eala hopes to be that winner and get herself a shot at Wang, who defeated her in their first encounter at the ASB Classic semifinals, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, in New Zealand last January.
Taking on world No. 45 Frech for the first time, Eala is coming off a second-round (round of 64) finish at the Madrid Open.
Eala defeated Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round, 6-3, 6-3, and succumbed to Belgian Elise Mertens in the second, 2-6, 1-6.
Turning 21 years old on May 23, Eala aims to end a string of early exits in the clay season as she could not get past the second round at 500s Linz and Stuttgart as well as the 1000 Madrid.
Eala won twice only in her last five matches albeit Frech did not win any in her last five.
Frech last saw action in Madrid, where she yielded to Solana Sierra in the round of 64, 2-6, 4-6, after a walkover in the round of 128.
Meanwhile, Eala entered the top 40 anew at the Women’s Tennis Association live rankings, climbing to No. 39 on Tuesday.
Eala maintained her 1,285 total ranking points but rose three notches from her official ranking No. 42 due to a slew of players losing points ahead of the 1000 Italian Open set from May 5 to 17.
One of those hitters is former French Open titlist Jelena Ostapenko, who dropped six notches from No. 36 with 1,259 points.
The live rankings indicated a net loss of 110 points for Ostapenko which meant that it already reset the players’ points from last year’s Italian Open, where the Latvian claimed 120 for a round of 16 finish.
The live rankings already gave Ostapenko a net gain of 10 this year for the round of 128 (first round) appearance she’s about to make and thus 110-point deduction only instead of the full 120. NIEL VICTOR MASOY
