THERE is no letting up for the newly-minted Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) champion Alexandra “Alex” Eala.
In a quick wind up, the Filipina pride shifts her focus to the WTA 250 Sao Paulo Open in Brazil starting on Tuesday in a bid to win her second straight title.
Ms. Eala is seeded No. 3 in Brazil, drawing qualifier Yasmine Mansouri of France in Round 1 albeit the game time is still to be announced pending the result of other qualifying matches.
Ranked No. 61 in the live WTA rankings with 1054 points, Ms. Eala has been installed as the heavy favorite against the No. 380 Mansouri.
Winner gets a shot against either No. 188 Julia Riera of Argentina or No. 429 Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia in the second round.
Then seeded as No. 2 in the WTA 125 Guadalajara Open, Ms. Eala dominated the 32-player field highlighted by a 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 comeback win against Hungary’s Panna Udvardy to net not only her first WTA title but also for the Philippines ever.
She previously beat No. 187 Arianne Hartono of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-2, WTA No. 122 Varvara Lepchenko of the United States, 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, No. 280 Nicole Fossa Huergo of Italy in the quarterfinals, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 and WTA No. 418 Kayla Day of the United States, 6-2, 6-3.
Ms. Eala, 20, pocketed a cash prize of $115,000 or around P6.5 million, just a week after bagging a $154,000 or approximately P8.7-million purse with a second-round stint in the US Open in New York as the first Filipina ever to win in any Grand Slam main draw.
Sao Paulo is a WTA-250 level tourney, looming a tougher tourney for Ms. Eala who however marches into Brazilian shores with an all-time momentum and confidence from an equally impressive US Open stint marked by a stunning 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (13-11) win over world No. 15 and 14th-seeded Clara Tauson from Denmark.
She then exited in the Round of 64 to Cristina Bucsa of Spain, 6-4, 6-3, but that proved as a huge stepping stone in her Guadalajara conquest.
Up next for the taking is Sao Paulo. — John Bryan Ulanday
