FILIPINO tennis ace Alexandra “Alex” Eala will face either Chinese Zhang Shuai or Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska in the round of 64 (second round) at the Indian Wells Open in California, United States, where the tournaments from March 4 to 15.
World no. 32 Eala is a seeded entrant and received a first-round bye, while no. 62 Zhang and no. 52 Yastremska were drawn against each other as first-round opponents on Tuesday.
Zhang and Yastremska will clash on Friday.
If Eala gets past Zhang or Yastremska, she will face either fourth seed Coco Gauff in a rematch or wildcard Bianca Andreescu for the first time in the third round.
Eala has not faced Zhang yet but has beaten Yastremska before.
The 20-year-old Eala defeated the 25-year-old Yastremska at the Eastbourne Open quarterfinals last year, 6-1, 6-2.
Eala went on to reach the finals of the tournament but fell to world no. 29 MayaJoint in the final, 4-6, 6-1, 6-7 (10).
Eala last saw action at the Dubai Tennis Championships where she reached the quarterfinals, falling to world no. 4 Gauff, 0-6, 2-6, two weeks ago.
Eala’s tournament run which included an upset of world no. 7 (then world no. 8) Jasmine Paolini, 6-1, 7-6(5), in the round of 32 pushed her from 47th to a career-best 31st at the WTA rankings on February 23.
That surge enabled Eala to be a seeded entrant in this 1000-level Indian Wells, securing a second round berth with a first round bye.
In the latest rankings, Eala dropped by a notch (32nd) but it didn’t affect her seeding at Indian Wells since the seeding cutoff for the tourney were on Feb. 23.
After the Indian Wells, Eala will next compete at the Miami Open set from March 17 to 29.
As a wildcard entrant, Eala reached the semifinals of the 1000-tier competition last year, which is easily her best run on the Tour.