New heights for Eala

MANILA, Philippines — And the world-ranking climb of Alex Eala reaches a new high.

The Filipina sensation moved closer to the world tennis titans, resetting her career-best to No. 31 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings following a remarkable campaign in the WTA1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships over the weekend.

Eala, 20, made it to the Last 8 of the Dubai joust – with a level next to the four majors – and thus soared 16 rungs from No. 47.

The lefty ace slid seven spots from No. 40 after a first-round exit in the Qatar Open, also a 1000-level tour, but she made up for it in style in UAE with wins over higher-ranked opponents.

Now on the brink of cracking the Top 30, Eala also moved to No. 5 in Asia just behind Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan (No. 3), Naomi Osaka of Japan (No. 16), Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen (No. 24) and Wang Xinyu (No. 30) of China.

Eala saw the end of her run in a 6-0, 6-2 defeat to good pal and world No. 4 Coco Gauff of the United States after beating fancied foes none bigger than world No. 8 Jasmine Paolini of Italy, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).

She also pulled the rug from under WTA No. 39 Hailey Baptiste of the USA, 6-4, 0-1 (ret.) and WTA No. 32 Sorana Cirstea of Romania, 7-5, 6-4.

Her quarterfinal finish in Dubai came an added fire in an explosive start to her 2026 season marked by a semifinal finish in the WTA250 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, quarters in WTA125 Philippine Women’s Open and singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals with Indonesian partner Janice Tjen (WTA No. 36) in the WTA Abu Dhabi Open.

And it’s seen as a good stepping stone for Eala on her way to two more 1000-level tours in the Indian Wells Open in California on March 4 to 15 and the Miami Open on March 17 to 29.

With all her feats, Eala has emerged as the newest tennis darling playing in packed stadiums and drawing praises from the WTA as well as from her peers, including Gauff, Dubai champion Jessica Pegula of the United States and 22-time Grand slam champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

“Alex is amazing. The way she’s been able to pack stadiums and the way her country supports her is something special. She handles it so maturely, with such grace,” said Pegula after beating Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in the Dubai final, 6-2, 6-4 for her 10th title.

It was Pegula who stopped Eala’s Cinderella run in Miami last year.