TENNIS heroine Alex Eala is in town for a short vacation before resuming her pro career and the hardcourt season by competing in the National Open presented by Rogers, popularly known as the Canadian Open, unfolding on July 26 at the 11,500-seat IGA Stadium in Montreal, Canada.
“She’s (Eala’s) home,” tweeted former PBA commissioner and PSC chairman Noli Eala, the tennis player’s uncle, over the weekend with a picture of her niece by her side.
Still currently at No. 56 in the Women’s Tennis Association world ratings, despite early exits in the women’s singles and doubles events of the just-concluded Wimbledon Open in London, England, the pretty Pinay athlete will likely spend her limited break by mingling with relatives and friends.
The well-deserved respite should serve her well before she goes back on the WTA tour in her build-up for the fourth and last tennis Grand Slam, the 145th US Open, opening in August at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
Eala will be playing on her favorite hard-court surface in the French-speaking Canadian city in a WTA 1000 tournament featuring the world’s top 10, bannered by No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, No. 2 and reigning French Open Coco Gauff of the US and No. 3 and newly-crowned Wimbledon singles champion Iga Swiatek of Poland.
Also in the blue-ribbon field is No. 4 American Jessica Pegula, the defending champion, and a host of other players who are in the top 100, including hometown bet and Filipino-Canadian Leylah Fernandez, who is currently at No. 35.
Other players in the roster that Eala has crossed rackets with are American Madison Keys (No.8, Czech Barbora Krejcikova (No. 16), Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (No. 25), Australian Maya Joint (No. 37) and Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska (No. 39), among others.
Who Eala’s opening round foe will be in the main draw won’t be known for three days until the competition proper on July 27.
