Hot start continues for Eala

MANILA, Philippines —  Filipina tennis sensation Alex Eala continued to scale the mountains of the elite women’s professional circuit.

On the heels of a breakthrough doubles title in India, Eala jumped to No. 184 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) list for a new career-high in her young career.

The 18-year-old wunderkind, who was recently named Ms. Tennis by the esteemed Philippine Sportswriters Association in its Annual Awards Night this week, surpassed her previous best at No. 185 to start the season.

She slipped a bit last week at No. 187 before teaming up with Latvian partner Darja Semenistaja to reign supreme in the W50 Pune in India for her first-ever crown in the women’s doubles.

The Filipina-Latvian duo, seeded No. 4 in the tournament, came away with a 7-6 (8), 6-3 win against the top-seeded duo of Naiktha Bains from Great Britain and Fannin Stollar of Hungary.

That made it up for her quarterfinals exit in the singles event of the same tournament, ironically against her doubles partner in Semenistaja, 7-6(6), 6-0, after also a first-round exit in the qualifying draw of the Australian Open earlier this month.

Eala, who has four singles titles under her belt, thus moved up 63 notches in the WTA doubles division as well at No. 302 now from No. 365 to start the year.