ALEXANDRA “ALEX” EALA obliterated Mei Yamaguchi of Japan in straight sets, 6-0, 6-3, to net her third straight WTA Tour quarterfinal appearance in the WTA125 Jingshan Open Thursday at the Jingshan International Tennis Tournament Center in Hubei, China.
Ms. Eala, the No. 1 seed and the highest-ranked player in the 32-team tourney at WTA No. 58, was unforgiving right out of the gates by blanking her Japanese counterpart, WTA No. 268, in the first set to dictate the pace and ultimately run away with the easy Round of 16 win in only 72 minutes of play.
The 20-year-old Filipina also swept No. 322 Aliona Falei of Belarus, 6-3, 7-5, in the first round, for a spotless campaign so far without yielding a single set synonymous to its stellar seven-game run in the Americas.
Also a quarterfinalist in the WTA125 Guadalajara Open in Mexico and the WTA250 Sao Paulo Open in Brazil, Ms. Eala shoots for a Final Four seat Friday against another lower-ranked rival in Jia-Jing Lu of China.
Game time is still-to-be-determined with Ms. Lu, WTA No. 349, earning a shot at the Ms. Eala after scoring an equally impressive 6-4, 6-0 win over WTA No. 499 Riya Bathia of India.
Another win by Ms. Eala would put her two steps closer to winning her second WTA title after bringing home the first-ever crown for Philippine tennis in Guadalajara Open this month.
A proud scholar graduate of Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain, Eala is the only Top 100 player in the tournament, making her the heavy favorite to not only reign supreme over everyone but also to break into the Top 50 for the first time ever.
Ms. Eala’s previous career-best is at No. 56 in the official weekly WTA rankings albeit she reached as high as No. 55 in the live rankings in the middle of her Brazilian tourney.
As of now, Ms. Eala is No. 56 in the currently rankings with only two rungs improvement so far with two more stops in China — the WTA125 Suzhou Open on Sept. 29 to Oct. 5 and the Hong Kong Open on Oct. 27 to Nov. 2 — for the start of her Asian swing leading up to a possible national team return this December in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand. — John Bryan Ulanday
