By MARK REY MONTEJO
Alex Eala might be hopping from one country to another but her trajectory continues to point upward.
The Filipina tennis ace extended her rise on the global rankings, landing at a career-best No.40 in the latest Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings on Monday, Feb. 9.
The 20-year-old Filipina climbed five spots from her previous No. 45 ranking after garnering a total of 1,244 points.
The leap came on the heels of her stellar campaign in the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi Open where she reached the quarterfinals of the women’s singles event.
Aside from her rise in the singles ranking, Eala also barged into the top 100 of the doubles ladder, landing at the 99th spot after she, and Indonesian partner Janice Tjen reached the semifinals of the women’s doubles also at the Abu Dhabi Open.
“Thank you Abu Dhabi! A time was had! Next stop, Doha,” Eala wrote on her Instagram post.
The tournament was part of Eala’s Middle east swing where she’s also slated to play in the 2026 Qatar Open and the Dubai Tennis Championship.
With her upswing, the Filipina tennis ace earned an invite to compete in the “Fifth Grand Slam”, the prestigious Indian Wells Open in California next month.
She is now one of the top netters from Asia in the rankings just behind No. 3 Kazakh Elena Rybakina, No. 15 Japanese Naomi Osaka, No. 26 Qinwen Zheng and No. 33 Xinyu Wang of China.
Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka remained at No. 1 with 10,990 points, followed by Polish Iga Swiatek (7,978), Rybakina (7,523), and Americans Amanda Aminisova (6,680), and Coco Gauff (6,423), completing the Top Five.
Eala is gearing up in Qatar as she guns for a payback against her fellow emerging star in Czech Teresa Valentova in the competition’s Round of 64.
The two fought last October in the Japan Open with Valentova prevailing, 6-1, 6-2.
