Eala will fall 20 spots in WTA ranking upon expiration of earned Miami Open points

UNLESS Alexandra “Alex” Eala replicates her final four finish last year in the Miami Open, she’s tipped to drastically fall in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings with at least a 20-spot drop following the expiration of ranking points on Thursday.

The main draw of the WTA-1000 level tour kicked off on Wednesday, scrapping all the points harvested by all players in last year’s edition, including 390 from Ms. Eala after a stellar run all the way from a wildcard in the qualifiers to being the first WTA semifinalist.

And as per the WTA live rankings, the effect is in full force right away as it dragged Ms. Eala to No. 50 from a new career-best of No. 29 this week following a Last 16 finish in the Indian Wells Open with 1525 points.

She’s back to 1145 now and should she fail to go deep while the players ahead of her advance farther, Ms. Eala could slip to the border of Top 60.

In total, Ms. Eala only lost 380 points so far, getting 10 points back due to a first-round bye as the No. 31 seed in the stacked 128-player field headlined by Top 32 players as well as former and current Grand Slam champions.

The official WTA ranking update will reflect on Monday on a weekly basis and it’s on Ms. Eala to turn the tide starting with a Round 2 duel against No. 53 Laura Siegemund of Germany, who beat No. 76 Petra Marcinko of Croatia, 6-4, 6-4, in Round 1.

Mses. Eala and Siegemund were scheduled to battle before lunch on Wednesday but it has been pushed back to 12 a.m. (Manila time) at the earliest after heavy rains disrupted other matches in Miami.

Her first duel, albeit in Round 2 already, will set the tone on whether she could get those points back or lose it altogether. She needs four wins to do it and return to the semifinals, where either her good friend and world No. 4 Coco Gauff or No. 6 Amanda Anisimova could be waiting.

Inch by inch, she could trim the deduction with 35, 65, 120 and 215 points up for grabs in Rounds 2, 3, 4 and quarterfinals, respectively.

And giants in the lower bracket are waiting in line to foil that.

After Ms. Siegemund, no less than world No. 3 Iga Swiatek of Poland with some heavy ax to grind possibly awaits Ms. Eala by the third round. Ms. Swiatek was part of Ms. Eala’s titan-slaying spree in Miami that shattered the gates wide open for her rise, alongside Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko and USA’s Madison Keys, before she fell against world No. 5 Jessica Pegula also from the USA.

Ms. Swiatek, also with a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed in Miami, will face her compatriot Magda Linette in Round 2. Ms. Linette, WTA No. 50, stormed back against France’s Varvara Gracheva, 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.

World No. 14 Karolina Muchova of Czechia or No. 16 Clara Tauson of Denmark by Round 4 and then either world No. 9 Victoria Mboko of Canada or No. 10 Mirra Andreeva of Russia are projected to stand in the way in the next two rounds for Ms. Eala to get in the semis.

“Run it back,” she beamed, declaring an all-out battle to protect what’s hers and to prove that she belongs among the world’s best of the best.

Meanwhile, reigning champion and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus or world No. 2 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan headline the upper bracket and should be in a collision course for the other finale slot. — John Bryan Ulanday