FILIPINO tennis ace Alex Eala soared to a new career-high No. 18 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings on Monday, making history as the highest rated Southeast Asian player of all time.
Eala topped Indonesian Yayuk Basuki and Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn who both peaked at No. 19.
Basuki reached No. 19 in October 1997 while Tanasugarn matched it in May 2002.
Eala improved two notches from her previous best of No. 20 ahead of her US Open return in New York.
She gained a total of 2,281 ranking points after a third-round exit at the 1000 Cincinnati Open last week.
The 21-year-old Eala will likely be seeded No. 17 in the US Open, a notch higher than her actual ranking due to the withdrawal of world No. 15 Victoria Mboko.
Mboko continues to recover from a left knee injury sustained at the Queen’s Club in London last June.
Eala’s projected No. 17 seed is her highest in a Grand Slam, topping the No. 29 she had at the Wimbledon in July when she became the first Filipino singles seeded player in a major.
The lefty will begin her US Open campaign in the mixed doubles with ATP No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.
The Filipino-Canadian tandem faces the husband-and-wife duo of Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Both the Eala-Auger-Aliassime and Monfils-Svitolina duos received wildcard entries in the tournament, which starts at round of 16.
The winner faces either the top seed tandem of Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic or the pair of Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe.
After the mixed doubles, Eala will face Iva Jovic in the Stars of the Open exhibition match on Aug. 27.
Like Eala, Jovic leaped two places in the WTA rankings from No. 16 to No. 14 with 2,671 points.
Sabalenka stayed on top of the latest leaderboard with 8,575 points with Elena Rybakina tailing at No. 2 with 8,141 and Jessica Pegula at No. 3 with 7,265 points.
