Up five spots, World No. 30 Eala seals historic Wimbledon berth
MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala on Monday rose as the No. 30 tennister in the world, officially securing a historic Wimbledon seed in the process.
Eala improved five spots from No. 35 last week — thanks to a stellar Final-Four finish in the WTA500 Berlin Tennis Open — to become the first seeded Filipina ever in any Grand Slam main draw.
She even moved up to No. 29 seed in the provisional draw released by Wimbledon Monday as World No. 9 Victoria Mboko of Canada, her supposedly partner in the French Open last May, withdrew due to a left knee injury.
The official draw for Wimbledon, which will run from June 29 to July 12 in London, is set this weekend.
Only the Top 32 players in the latest WTA rankings get a seed in the queen of grass, thus giving Eala — whose career-best ranking is at No. 29 last March — a first-round bye after multiple early exits in the past including a Round of 128 elimination in Roland Garros.
And Eala gets to refine her bearings once more to be as ready as ever for Wimbledon with a juggling act in the WTA Bad Homburg Open in Germany.
Youth firepower meets legendary pedigree as the rising star Eala, 21, and the grizzled American great Venus Williams, 46, join forces against the qualifier duo of Catherine Harrison of the United States and Alexandra Osborne of Australia.
Eala and the seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams were to play Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and En-Shuo Liang of Chinese Taipei, but the latter withdrew due to an injury to give way for the Harrison-Osborne pair from the qualifying round.
Before that though, Eala was to slug it out against World No. 24 Elise Mertens of Belgium in the singles Monday night, with hopes of avenging her 6-2, 6-1 defeat in the Round 1 of the Madrid Open.
This will serve as Eala’s final piece to an impressive Wimbledon build-up so far, riding on a 9-2 grass record so far marked by smashing her second pro title in the WTA125 Birmingham Open followed by a torrid run in Berlin.
Eala in Berlin braved on as a wildcard and a debutant, scoring massive wins against World No. 33 Donna Vekic of Croatia, No. 2 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and No. 8 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.
Her campaign ended with another loss against World No. 13 Linda Noskova of Czechia, 6-2, 6-4, in the semifinals. Eala also absorbed a 6-2, 6-0 loss against her fellow 21-year-old Noskova in the Indian Wells Round of 16 last March.
It’s part of her previous 0-13 slate against Czech players before a breakthrough against World No. 46 Nikola Bartunkova to win Birmingham earlier this month.
In Wimbledon, Eala is out for more.
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