MANILA, Philippines — Filipino tennis ace Alex Eala climbed to a new career-high 45th at the official Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings Monday morning.
Eala made the leap from her previous high 49th ahead of her Abu Dhabi Open campaign in the United Arab Emirates set on Monday night in Manila.
"I’m working hard," the 20-year-old Eala said.
"My team is working hard and we’re working hard to maintain the level that I’m at and working even harder to go deeper and higher into the rankings inch by inch."
Eala has a total of 1,163 points in the rankings, still led by Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka who has 10,990.
Polish Iga Swiatek (7,978), Kazakh and newly crowned Australian Open champ Elena Rybakina (7,610), American Amanda Anisimova (6,680), and another American Coco Gauff (6,423) round out the top five.
Eala faces world no. 79 Zeynep Sönmez of Turkey in the round of 32 in Abu Dhabi.
In the doubles side set on Tuesday, Eala teams up with Indonesian and world no. 47 Janice Tjen.
The Southeast Asian duo take on the Canadian-French duo of Leyla Fernandez and Kristina Mladenovic in the round of 16.
Eala is coming off a quarterfinal finish at the inaugural Philippine Women's Open.
Eala lost to eventual champ Camila Osorio of Colombia in the quarterfinals, 4-6, 4-6, last Thursday.
