By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Alex Eala jumped to a career-high world ranking of No. 54 following her latest Asian stints in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) circuit).
The 20-year-old improved from four notches at 58 – thanks to her performances at the Jingshan Open and Suzhou Open in China, and the qualifying round in the Wuhan Open just last weekend.
At the Jingshan Open, she managed to reach the semifinals but fell to Lulu Sun, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. She made it to the quarterfinals at the Suzhou Open but suffered a 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (0) loss to Viktorija Golubic.
Eala attempted to earn a berth in the main draw of the Wuhan Open — the final WTA1000 event in this year’s calendar that has the world’s Top 5 players competing — but lost in the first qualifying round match to Moyuka Uchijima, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
Eala is expected to resume her campaign at the Japan Open in Osaka next week — a WTA250 event.
