Opting to skip the Southeast Asian Games and French Open, Filipina teen tennis ace Alex Eala came back from a long slump after her U.S. Open girls’ championship run as the 18-year-old snagged the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Yecla W25 Tournament in Yecla, Spain on Sunday.
The world number 219 handled 22-year-old Valentina Ryser (world number 560) of Switzerland, 6-3, 7-5, to grab her third ITF seniors’ title and the first for 2023.
Eala will receive $25,000 (P1.4 million) for winning the event, upping her career earnings to $107,775 (P6 million).
The championship is a huge comeback for Eala who hit a seven-month slump shallow runs in singles play starting in the ITF W100 Shrewsbury tournament in England in Halloween of 2022, where she failed to qualify.
From then on, Eala suffered setbacks in big tournaments, such as a qualifying round loss to Misaki Doi in the 2023 Australian Open and first round exits in Thailand Open WTA 250 tournament and the Miami and Madrid WTA 1000 championships.
Going back to the ITF circuit, Eala absorbed back-to-back first round exits in Switzerland and a quarterfinal loss in Monastir, Tunisia—all against underage girls.
Eala’s third championship came after defeating Victoria Rodriguez of Mexico and Lucia Peyre of Argentina in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
Eala previously won the ITF Chiang Rai W25 in April 2022 and ITF Manacor W15 in 2021.
She retired from juniors’ play after being the first Filipino tennis player to win a juniors Grand Slam singles title in the U.S. in September last year.
* * *
