FILIPINO tennis ace Alex Eala is set for a career-best No. 15 finish in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) 2026 season rankings.
Regardless of her WTA 250 Hong Kong Open final result against Claire Liu Sunday afternoon, Eala already secured the No. 15 spot with 2,392 points.
After Hong Kong, the only tournament left is the season-ended WTA Finals at Indian Wells from Nov. 8 to 15 but only the top eight players are participating so it won’t affect Eala’s ranking no matter the result.
With 2,392 points as her base, last week's No. 17 Eala will eclipse No. 15 Sorana Cirstea who ended her season with 2,386 points.
The live rankings Saturday night indicated that Eala can pad her total points to 2,479 with a Hong Kong championship, but that won't be enough to push her up a notch at No. 14.
Current No. 14 Elise Mertens will stay at her place since she has 2,540 total points.
A top 15 finish meant a 35-rank improvement for Eala who finished last year as top 50.
In a fitting follow-up to her first WTA main tour, Eala went on to make a historic fourth-round finish at Wimbledon last July which is the highest for any Filipino player.
Eala also secured her first main Tour title at the 500 D.C. Open in Washington last August.
Two months earlier in June, Eala claimed a 125-tier Birmingham Open title.
Thus, she could raise her titles to three with a Hong Kong championship.
Eala made it to the final after defeating Emerson Jones in the first round, 6-4, 6-3; Tereza Valentova in the second, 6-4, 7-6(7); Antonia Ruzic in the quarterfinals, 7-6(7); and Maria Sakkari in the semifinals, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.
The lefty netter was seeking a payback win against world No. 102 Liu in the final.
Eala yielded to Liu at the Guangzhou Open first round in October last year, 6-2, 4-6, 4-6.
