A familiar player looms as the main opponent of top seed Alex Eala when she kicks off her clay-court season today as the qualifying round of the WTA 125 Oerias Ladies Open gets going at the Jamor Tennis Club in Oerias, Portugal.
As a reward for reaching the Miami Open women’s singles semifinals, boosting her in the Women’s Tennis Association world ratings at No. 73, Eala, 19, will be spared from the rigors of the two qualifying rounds that last until tomorrow and won’t see action until the main draw on Wednesday.
Recovering from hip and ankle injuries suffered in the losing Miami Open semis match against world No. 4 Jessica Pegula, the pretty Filipina southpaw declared herself fit and ready to go last week while training on her “home” turf – the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy in Mallorca, Spain.
If the form chart holds, Eala should face in the finals American No. 2 seed Katy Volynets, ranked No. 80, whom she beat 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in the first qualifying round of the Miami Open, in the tournament offering 125 ranking points and $13,327 (around P759,692) to the champion.
The other seeded players in the main tournament are third seed Italian ElisabetttaCocciaretto (No. 89), fourth seed Hungarian Anna Bondar (No. 91), fifth seed Swiss ViktoriaGolubic (No. 93), sixth seed Chinese Yuan Yue (No. 101), seventh seed NuriaParrizas Diaz (No. 111) and eight seed Romanian SoranaCirstea (No. 117).
After the Oerias Ladies Open, Eala is eyeing to play next in the WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open scheduled April 21 to May 4 at the La CajaMajica (Magic Box), also known as the Manzanares Park Tennis Center, in Madrid, Spain.
The Open tournament promises to be star-studded, with both the world No. 1s in both the men’s and women’s divisions – German Alexander Zverev and Belarusian ArynaSabalenka – leading the cast.
Expected to be a keen spectator of Eala in the event she competes in the meet is five-time Madrid Open men’s singles champion Rafael Nadal.
Nadal is the owner of the academy where the netter honed her skills beginning at the tender age of 12, rising steadily through the ranks since graduating from the famed tennis institution in 2023.
