Alex Eala rises to career-best No. 50 in WTA rankings

Metro Manila, Philippines - Alex Eala has made history again as she broke into the Top 50 of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) world rankings.

The 20-year-old Filipino tennis star climbed to No. 50 in the latest world rankings.

Eala gained a wider global attention following an impressive Miami Open campaign, which included wins over former grand slam champions Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys, and world No. 2 Iga Swiatek.

With her stellar performance in Miami, Eala earned a main draw appearance at the French Open where she lost to Emiliana Arango of Colombia in the first round.

Eala also made her main draw debut at Wimbledon, where she fell to defending champion Barbora Krejcikova of Czech in three sets in the first round.

It was in the US Open that Eala made a mark when she finally notched her first win, completing a comeback victory over Clara Tauson of Denmark to become the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam main draw match in the Open era.

Eala was not yet done in her historic run as she bagged the WTA 125 Guadalajara Open title after beating Panna Udvardy of Hungary in three sets.

Eala compiled a 40-26 win-loss record this year, with around $907,777 (about P53.3 million) in prize money.

Eala is expected to represent the Philippines in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand next month.