ALEXANDRA “ALEX” EALA braves on to her multi-city Asian swing, shifting her focus to the WTA125 Suzhou Open still in China as in a quick turnaround following a semifinal exit in the Jingshan open.
Ranked No. 58 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), Ms. Eala is among the title favorites once again as the No. 4 seed just behind USA’s Iva Jovic (No. 37), Tatjana Maria (No. 44) of Germany and Suzan Lamens (No. 57) of the Netherlands.
The 20-year-old Filipina has drawn Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa, WTA No. 124, in Round 1 at still-to-be-determined gametime pending the completion of the ongoing qualifying round.
Ms. Eala will have some ax to grind in Suzhou after failing to live up to her lofty billing as the No. 1 seed in the WTA125 Jingshan Open over the weekend despite spotless campaign in the first three rounds against Chinese Jia-Jing Lu (No. 349), Japanese Mei Yamaguchi (No. 268) and Belarusian Aliona Falei (No. 322).
Up against the third-seeded and WTA No. 146 Lulu Sun of New Zealand who ultimately won the title with a sweep of home bet Ye-Xin Ma, Ms. Eala fumbled a strong start and had a deep 0-4 hole in the third set for a 6-3, 4-6, 2-6 defeat to miss out on a potential second final in the last three stops of the WTA Tour.
Ms. Eala captured a breakthrough WTA title for the Philippines in the WTA125 Guadalajara Open and had a quarterfinal stint in the WTA250 Sao Paulo Open in Brazil.
After Suzhou, Ms. Eala is also slated to play in the Hong Kong Open on Oct. 27 to Nov. 2 albeit more tournaments are expected to be announced in between and after ahead of her expected Philippine team return in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games this December in Thailand. — John Bryan Ulanday
