MANILA, Philippines — Filipino tennis ace Alex Eala starts her WTA 500 Abu Dhabi Open campaign in the United Arab Emirates Monday.
Coming off a quarterfinal finish at the inaugural Philippine Women's Open, Eala faces a familiar foe in Turkish Zeynep Sönmez with the exact time yet to be determined at press time.
World no. 49 Eala defeated no. 112 Sonmez twice in as many matches as she looks to continue her mastery over the latter who used to be her doubles partner at the ITF circuit.
Eala first took on Sönmez at the 2023 W60 Nantes, winning their round of 16 encounter, 7-6(5), 6-4.
The Philippine netter repeated on Sönmez at last year's Eastbourne Open first round qualifiers, 6-1, 6-3.
"I’m working hard. My team is working hard and we’re working hard to maintain the level that I’m at and working even harder to go deeper and higher into the rankings inch by inch," said Eala.
While the 20-year-old Eala is ranked significantly higher than the 23-year-old Sonmez, the Turkish is definitely no pushover.
Sporting a career-best 69th in the rankings, Sonmez just reached the third round of the Australian Open, falling to the Kazakh Yulia Putintseva, 3-6, 7-6(3), 3-6.
For making it to the round of 32 of the first major of the year, Sonmez is set to jump to 79th in the official rankings.
In the same tournament, Eala got booted out in the first round as she yielded to American Alycia Parks, 6-0, 3-6, 2-6.
Eala then decided to join the Philippine Women's Open as she made her tournament home debut but fell to eventual champ Camila Osorio in the uarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Eala also sees action in the doubles side with Indonesian partner Janice Tjen.
Eala and Tjen take on the Canadian-French duo of Leyla Fernadez and Kristina Mladenovic in the round of 16.