FILIPINO tennis ace Alexandra "Alex" Eala is on track to claim the No. 17 seed at the US Open women's singles play.
Ranked No. 18 in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), the withdrawal of No. 15 Victoria Mboko due to injury should put Eala one notch higher in seeding.
The No. 17 seed will be Eala's highest seeding in a Grand Slam, topping her No. 29 at Wimbledon last July.
As of writing, the official seeding of players hasn't been revealed yet.
Eala will face players likely outside the top 60 for the first two rounds before facing a player likely in the No. 9 to No. 16 seed in the third.
The 21-year-old Eala was set to begin her US Open campaign in the mixed doubles Tuesday night in Manila.
Teaming up with Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime, Eala was to face the husband-and-wife tandem of Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina at the Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Both the Eala-Auger-Aliassime and Mofils-Sviolina duos received wildcard entries in the main draw, which starts at the round of 16.
The winner faces either the top-seed tandem of Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic or the pair of Katerina Siniakova and Henry Patten.
Eala and Auger-Aliassime are guaranteed to share prize money of $40,000 or P2.4 million for their round of 16 appearance.
If they win the entire tournament, the Filipino-Canadian tandem will share a payout of $1 million or more than P61 million.
After the mixed doubles, Eala will face world No. 14 Iva Jovic in the Stars of the Open exhibition match on Aug. 27.
The main draw matches will run from Aug. 30 to Sept. 13.
'EalaSaurus' arrives in New York
Eala's superfan wearing an inflatable blue dinosaur suit with a Philippine flag cape arrived in New York to cheer for the Filipino tennis ace at the US Open.
Fans posted pictures of "EalaSaurus" or "Tito Rex" spotted in Flushing Meadows on social media on Monday.
The blue dinosaur fan went viral during the Canadian Open, standing out as the wildest and most energetic supporter among Filipino fans during Eala's campaign in Toronto two weeks ago.
Eala said he's the perfect fan.
"I had the perfect fan last week," Eala said in an interview at the Cincinnati Open.
"He was wearing an inflatable, blue, dinosaur-kind of suit. He had a Filipino flag cape. He was dancing in the stands; he would put his feet on the railings; he was shaking it. You're a perfect fan!”
