Eala up for bump in Wuhan Open seedings
MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala is projected to move up in the seedings of the Wuhan Open next week after the withdrawal of some big guns led by World No. 1 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.
From No. 18, the 21-year-old Filipina tennis sensation is bound to be the No. 13 seed in the 1000-level Chinese tilt as of writing time pending the official draw and other player developments on Saturday.
The Wuhan Open, along with the China Open, is the final 1000-level tourney of the season before the WTA Tour Finals from November 8-15 in Indian Wells.
Eala is already out of contention ahead of the ranking cutoff on November 1 in the WTA finals featuring the tour’s Top 8 players after skipping the China Open in Beijing to play for the Philippines in the 20th Asian Games in Japan, where she bagged a bronze medal.
Although World No. 18, Eala actually made it as high as the Top 10 in the tour rankings only to fall to No. 15 with 2,181 points. She lost a slim shot at cracking the final cut by missing out in Beijing with at least 1,000 ranking points at stake.
And so she’s out to conquer the next big thing, the Wuhan Open for a perfect chance of redemption and ranking jump before the season ends after back-to-back setbacks in a bumpy start to her Asian Swing campaign.
Aside from Rybakina who’s recovering from a foot injury she suffered in a stunning early Beijing exit, No. 4 Coco Gauff and No. 11 Amanda Anisimova of the United States as well as No. 17 Naomi Osaka of Japan are also out of Wuhan due to different reasons.
Hopes are high on Eala now to go on a deep run after a Round-of-16 exit in the WTA500 Singapore Open as the No. 3 seed. As the No. 1 seed and heavy title favorite, she also fell short from redemption after a semifinal loss in the Asiad to settle for a second straight bronze medal.
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