Record seeding looms for Eala in Cincinnati Open
MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala is projected to earn her best seeding ever in a 1000-level WTA Tour.
Fresh from a Round-of-16 finish in Toronto, Eala could land as the No. 17 seed in the WTA1000 Cincinnati Open main draw, according to the WTA Tuesday pending last-minute player movements.
The official seedings and draw of the 128-player field will be announced Wednesday (Manila time) after the qualifying round.
The Top 32 seeds, led by No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2 Elena Rybakina, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 4 Coco Gauff and No. 5 Mirra Andreeva, will have a first-round bye in the main draw starting on Thursday.
Eala is ranked No. 20 in the WTA world rankings but could be seeded higher owing to the withdrawal of higher-ranked players like No. 6 Karolina Muchova of Czechia, No. 12 Victoria Mboko of Canada and No. 15 Jasmine Paolini of Italy due to injuries.
The 21-year-old Filipina was the No. 25 seed in the National Bank Open in Toronto, Canada, also WTA1000 tourney, where she reached the fourth round last week after beating WTA No. 71 Alycia Parks and WTA No. 70 Caty McNally, both from the United States.
Those wins extended the longest streak of her young professional career (7 wins) and the longest active among all players in the WTA Tour at the time.
Her campaign ended with a 4-6, 0-6 defeat to former Olympic champion and World No. 14 and No. 12 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
Before Toronto, Eala was also the No. 29 seed in the Wimbledon as the first Filipina player to ever get a seeding in a Grand Slam main draw en route to a solid Round-of-16 finish — the highest finish in history by any player from the Philippines.
Eala, then still No. 28 in the world rankings, was unseeded in the WTA500 Mubadala Citi DC Open with fewer top seeds. But she defied the odds by beating a stacked opposition bannered by a finale win against No. 1 seed Pegula of USA for her first WTA Tour title.
She previously had higher seeds, including being No. 1, but in lower-tier tours like the WTA250 and the 125 challenger tournaments.
Back in Toronto, Eala nursed a minor ankle injury but assured that she’s fine and ready to plunge back to action in Cincinnati with hopes of a good showing for a much-needed final build-up to the US Open from August 30 to September 13 in Flushing Meadows, New York.
“I’m going to try to recover and come back out hot. I’ll be back,” said Eala, who is having a short vacation in Toronto to celebrate her first title back from D.C. before flying back to the US.
- Latest
- Trending
