ALEXANDRA “Alex” Eala is poised to secure the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye at the WTA 500 Singapore Tennis Open slated from Sept. 21 to 27 at the OCBC Arena, The Kallang.
Initially seeded No. 6, world No. 18 Eala moved three places up after No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 13 Diana Shnaider and No. 15 Sorana Cirstea pulled out of the tournament.
Pegula, Shnaider and Cirstea were supposed to claim the No. 1, No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, respectively.
The top four seeds in the 28-player field earn a first-round bye, starting their campaign in the second round.
French Open champion No. 5 Mirra Andreeva and No. 10 Amanda Anisimova are the No. 1 and No. 3 seeded players, respectively.
The other direct entrants listed on the tournament website are world No. 19 Elise Mertens, No. 21 Ekaterina Alexandrova, No. 26 Maja Chwalinska, No. 28 Sara Bejlek and No. 33 Maria Sakkari.
Completing the list are No. 37 Donna Vekic, No. 38 Barbora Krejcikova, No. 40 Wang Xinyu, No. 41 Oleksandra Oliynykova and No. 51 Janice Tjen.
The Singapore Open serves as Eala’s perfect buildup for the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.
The Asian Games tennis play will run from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3, running smack into WTA 1000 China Open’s Sept. 30 to Oct. 11 schedule.
Eala will skip the China Open in a bid to win the Asiad gold medal, which also merits a direct qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The 21-year-old will suffer a zero-point penalty, a $10,000 (P626,000) fine and potentially lose year-end bonuses if she skips China Open without WTA exemption.
The Philippine Tennis Association (Philta) requested the WTA to give Eala an exemption so she could avoid the penalties for skipping a 1000-tier tournament like the China Open.
Top players like Eala are contractually obliged to compete in Grand Slams and 1000-tier tournaments.
As of writing, there’s no word yet whether the WTA approved or denied Philta’s request albeit it already denied the same request from Indonesia’s Tjen.
Tjen thus will play at the China Open and skip the Asian Games, instead.
As for Eala, she will skip China and play at the Asian Games with or without the WTA exemption.
