Eala to start Miami Open campaign against American foe

Sports

RISING Filipino tennis player Alex Eala is all set for the 2025 Miami Open in Florida this week, with an Amercan opponent standing in her way for her opening assignment.

The 19-year-old Eala will go up against Katie Volynets at the start of the prestigious tournament, which is the same competition that the Filipino competed in last year.

In the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA1000) event last year, Eala made it to the second qualifying round where she fell to Colombia’s Emiliana Arango, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Eala’s return to this year’s Miami Open was made possible after she became one of the seven participants to be given wildcard berths. She is grouped in the lower part of the 128-player main draw, which features world No. 2 Iga Swiatek, No. 4 Jessica Pegula and world No. 5 Madison Keys, No. 8 Emma Navarro and No. 10 Paula Badosa.

Facing for the first time, Eala is ranked No. 140 in the world while the 23-year-old Volynets went up as high as No. 56 before earning her current rank of No. 73.

Eala has more International Tennis Federation (ITF) singles titles with five while Volynets has two. Volynets is battle-tested as she boasts of a WTA Challenger finals crown that she won in Croatia last year.

If she hurdles Volynets, a tougher match awaits Eala as her next assignment will be against 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, who earned a first round bye.(CCM)