Eala seen to drop in WTA ranking to No. 45 after Round of Sixteen

WIN OR LOSE in the Miami Open Round of 16, Alexandra “Alex” Eala is projected to drop in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings upon its weekly update on Tuesday.

From No. 29 with 1525 points, projections have Ms. Eala dipping to No. 45 (1255) according to live rankings following the expiration of the 390 ranking points she gained from last year’s final four run in the same event.

Ms. Eala collected those points — her biggest harvest ever — after beating Grand Slam champions Iga Swiatek of Poland, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Madison Keys of the United States in a stellar run from being a wildcard qualifier to becoming the first Filipina WTA semifinalist in history.

The 20-year-old Filipina has actually dropped all the way to No. 50 in the early goings of the 1000-level tour this year but scooped up some points to trim her deduction.

From the 390 lost points, Ms. Eala regained 120 of these after three wins and could jack it up to 215 with a win against world No. 14 Karolina Muchova of Czechia at press time.

Ms. Eala is 0-11 against Czech players in her budding career, making it a tall order to finally score one for a quarterfinal ticket that should move her closer to defending her coveted ranking points.

A win by Ms. Eala would set the stage against either fellow rising stars in No. 9 Victoria Mboko of Canada or No. 10 Mirra Andreeva of Russia.

And should she take care of business against either of them as well, that’s the only way to stay inside the Top 30 and get those 390 points back.

Given a continuous roll and another win against either her good pal in No. 4 Coco Gauff or No. 6 Amanda Anisimova, both from the United States, in the final four, Ms. Eala then is poised to crack Top 20.

A stark improvement from a wildcard in the qualifying round last year, Ms. Eala is seeded 31^st in the main draw and gained a first-round bye.

She then hacked out a 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-3 Round of 64 win against No. 53 Laura Siegemund of Germany before re-asserting mastery of No. 50 Magda Linette of Poland, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), to reach the Last 16.

Ms. Eala also reached the Last 16 in the Indian Wells Open, dubbed as the “Fifth Grand Slam” last week, that catapulted her inside the Top 30 for a new career-best ranking. — John Bryan Ulanday