FILIPINO tennis ace Alexandra “Alex” Eala on Monday slipped one spot to No. 29 in the latest Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings heading to her North American hardcourt swing campaign.
Eala’s 1,666 total ranking points stayed intact but dropped a notch after Barbora Krejcikova leaped from No. 32 to No. 26 following her Athens Open 250 conquest in Greece.
Krejcikova, who defeated Eala in her Wimbledon debut last year, topped home bet Maria Sakkari in Athens to boost her with 250 ranking points for a total of 1,680.
Krejcikova’s ascent likewise resulted in Emma Navarro (1,674) and Anastasia Potapova (1,667) slipping one spot from No. 26 to No. 27, respectively.
Meanwhile, Aryna Sabalenka continues to lead the rankings with a total of 8,550 points followed by Elena Rybakina with 8,143.
Jessica Pegula ranked third with 6,301 points while Coco Gauff placed fourth with 5,649 and Mirra Andreeva fifth with 5,293.
Karolina Muchova (5,168), Linda Noskova (5,119), Iga Swiatek (4,539), Amanda Anisimoa (4,353), and Elina Svitolina (4,351) rounded out the top 10 players in the latest WTA rankings.
Following her historic Wimbledon run, Eala climbed from No. 32 to a new career-high No. 28 last week on July 13.
Dropping to No. 29 which matched her previous best rank last March, Eala will begin her North American hard-court swing campaign at the Mubadala D.C. Open from July 27 to August 2 in Washington D.C., United States.
Eala will compete in the singles and doubles division of the tournament.
She will reunite with American great Venus Wiliams in the doubles side as they received a wildcard entry.
The 21-year-old Eala and the 46-year-old Williams first teamed up at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany where they made a quarterfinal finish last month.
After Mubadala D.C., Eala will next compete in two 1000 events which are the National Bank Open in Toronto, Canada and the Cincinnati Open in Ohio, United States.
The Toronto tournament will run from August 2 to 13 while the Ohio competition will swing from August 11 to 23.
