Alex Eala tries to erase the sting of a first-round doubles defeat when she returns to singles action Wednesday night in the French Open Juniors Championships.
Eala, seeded second in the field, faces Spain’s Leyre Romero Gormaz between 7 to 11 p.m. tonight in an attempt to clinch a quarterfinal berth.
On paper, Eala had the edge with her current International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior ranking of No. 4 compared to Gormaz’s No. 53.
But the Spaniard, who is three years older than 15-year-old Eala, boasts of two titles in clay last year and has already been competing in the women’s circuit since 2016.
In fact, Gormaz is coming off a quarterfinal finish at the $15,000 Melilla women’s tournament in Spain last month.
A victory for Eala would eclipse her best Grand Slam performance of a third-round finish at last January’s Australian Open.
Eala is still licking her wounds from an opening-round loss in the doubles with American partner Elina Kalieva at the expense of unseeded Lisa Pigato and Eleonora Alvisi of Italy, 7-5, 2-6, 10-7, despite being seeded third in the field.