Following her meteoric rise through the WTA rankings in recent months, Filipina tennis star Alex Eala hopes to hold steadfast in high-level competitions.
Alex Eala is keeping herself grounded when it comes to expectations as she deals with her rise in tennis following her breakthrough tournament at the Miami Open earlier this year, where she catapulted into the WTA Top 75.
From ranking above 100 to now notching a career-high ranking of world no. 56, the past few months have been a whirlwind for the 20-year-old tennister.
As she settles for a few weeks of rest before she gets back into action for the hard court season, Eala is looking closely at what lies ahead. After a few surprising runs in the past few months, which also included her first WTA final, Eala is focused on keeping up the good work.
[READ: Alex Eala set for more global tournaments ahead of highly-anticipated US Open debut]
“My plan originally for the end of the year was to break the Top 100. So I’ve done that quite early in the year so I’m super happy and you know to be in the line of five is even better,” Eala quipped during an interview with her uncle and former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala on his show Power & Play.
“There’s still quite a couple of months to go before the end of the year so, I think my goals are just to maintain and obviously, to keep the level that I’ve been showcasing the past few months,” she added.
Her most recent stint saw her exit early in Wimbledon, but not before giving then-defending champion Barbora Krejcikova a run for her money in a three-set loss.
Having gone against big names in her last few tournaments, including the likes of top five players Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek, Eala revealed that it was just a matter of preparing for them like any other competitor she’s had in her career.
Of course, Eala does recognize the fact that they are more experienced and better than her. But at the end of the day, she believes that it’s tennis and it’s the same all around.
“I think it’s a privilege to be able to play all of these tournaments and travel around the world. But of course, this ranking has opened a lot of doors for me, so although a lot of the tournaments I’m gonna be playing are higher level, I think that the preparation and kind of the mindset that goes into creating a plan of how to basically essentially prepare is the same,” she said.
“It’s just that I have to recognize that the other players are gonna be better and it’s going to push me to the limits.”
That mindset has seemed to work for Eala as she has pulled off some surprises — including in Miami where she beat both Keys and Swiatek.
Now, though, she’ll have to focus on keeping that kind of competitiveness as the season reaches the tail-end of the year.
An upcoming milestone for Eala will be a main draw appearance at the US Open where she is seeking her first win at a Grand Slam main draw.