Eala awaits opponent at Italian Open Round of 128 draw
ALEXANDRA “ALEX” EALA will have one more tournament in France before strutting her stuff against the world’s tennis titans in the French Open later this month.
After her two scheduled Italian stints, Ms. Eala on Sunday has also been listed for the Internationaux de Strasbourg Open on May 17 to 23 that will serve as the pre-tournament for the Roland Garros in Paris on May 24 to June 7.
Ms. Eala will play in the qualifying round, hoping to make it to the main draw as part of her final buildup after the Internazionali BNL D’Italia (Italian Open) in Rome on May 5 to 17 and the WTA 125 Parma Ladies Open in the nearby city on May 12 to 17.
Her main focus will be the Italian Open, a 1000-level WTA Tour as her availability in the next two tournaments will depend on her campaign there.
Overall, it will be Ms. Eala’s fourth, fifth and sixth clay tourney as a long preparation for the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the season, after a first-round exit last year against Colombia’s Emiliana Arango, 0-6, 6-2, 3-6.
The clay surface has proven to be Ms. Eala’s Achilles heel so far this season after not getting past the second round in her last three tournaments.
After the Miami Open, a hard court tournament, Ms. Eala exited in the second round of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open in Austria and in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany.
Her latest foray was a 6-2, 6-1 defeat to world No. 21 Elise Mertens of Belgium in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open, also a 1000-level joust.
In the same tourney, Ms. Eala and Turkish friend Zeynep Sonmez also bowed out in the doubles second round against the powerhouse duo of Katerina Siniakova of Czechia (world doubles No. 2) and Taylor Townsend of the United States (world No. 5), 6-1, 7-5.
That campaign is expected to push Ms. Eala slightly upper in the WTA rankings at No. 42 with 1285 points from No. 44 as per the live rankings.
She’s also projected to reach a new-career best of No. 88 in the doubles rankings from No. 99 with 888 points.
But first things first for Ms. Eala and that’s to smash for a deep campaign in the Italian Open after a 6-0, 6-1 first-round defeat against world No. 23 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.
The Italian Open is expected to release the official draw on Monday at the start of the qualifying round as Ms. Eala awaits her opponent in the Round of 128. — John Bryan Ulanday
