Young tennis star Alex Eala can add another achievement to her list as she just received her highest placement yet in the world rankings.
While sports like basketball and volleyball usually take up the lions share of attention in the country, it has been shown that Filipinos have excelled in sports that aren’t in the mainstream. Sports that aren’t widely played in the country have produced athletes who have succeeded on a global scale. And that was on display once more when tennis wunderkind Alex Eala proved that she is a tennis star in the making.
BEST FEMALE PLAYER IN SEA
Recently, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) released their updated world rankings, which saw Alex place at 214. With this placement, Alex received her career best career tennis world ranking yet. The achievement also means Alex enters the top fie all-time highest ranked Filipino tennis players in the open era.
At that placement, not only is she the highest ranking female player from the Philippines, but she also is currently ranked the highest female player in Southeast Asia. And by the way, she’s only 17 years old. Ever since Alex debuted on the world rankings a couple of years ago, her rankings have never declined and has consistently been increasing with every update. Her hard work and her wins have been paying off as she now finds herself in the top 200 best female tennis players in the world.
To date, Alex has two professional titles from the International Tennis Federation under her belt. Her first was in January 2021 when she won the W15 Manacor meet. Her second came in April 2022 when she won the W25 Chiang Rai tournament in Thailand. She defeated hometown favorite Luksika Kumkhum in 6-4, 6-2 to take home the trophy. This past May, Alex made her debut in the Philippine national team when she competed in tennis at the 31st SEA Games in Vietnam. The Rafa Nadal Academy trained tennis star ended up bagging three bronze medals in mixed doubles, women’s team event, and the women’s single event. And let’s not forget her historic US Opens girls singles championship she got this 2022.
MORE SPORTING ACHIEVEMENTS
The past couple of weeks have been filled with stories of Filipinos excelling different sports. The Philippine national women’s football team made history as the first ever national team from the country to win a championship under the AFF. And just recently, EJ Obiena bagged a bronze medal at the World Athletics Championship in Eugene, Oregon, the first ever Filipino to do so. And on his way to his historic podium finish, he recorded a height of 5.94m and beat his own personal record, the national record, and the Asian record. Because of that, he currently is ranked the best pole vaulter in Asia and the third best vaulter overall. The 26 year old proved once more that he truly is the best pole vaulter in the Philippines and Asia. And now, Alex Eala is breaking career records all before she’s turned 18. That’s called young sports star behavior.
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