Alex Eala continued her progress in the professional scene after propelling to a career-high No. 180 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings this week.

The 18-year-old Eala jumped eight notches from No. 188 last week following her quarterfinal finish in the W75 Porto International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament in Portugal which ended over the weekend.

Eala showed promise in the $75,000 with straight-set wins over Cyprus’ Raluca Georgiana Serban and Ukraine’s Katarina Zavatska before bowing to second seed Anna Bondar of Hungary.

She also competed in the doubles with New Zealand partner Ali Collins, where they finished in the quarters.

Eala hopes to further improve her performance and ranking when she competes in the W50 Trnava in Slovakia this week.

But she will have her hands full early as she is scheduled to meet Bondar, the same opponent that beat her in Portugal, in the opening round set Wednesday, Feb. 28.

Eala will also compete in the doubles with Turkey’s Zeynep Somnez, where they will be facing China’s Tang Qianhui and Chinese Taipei’s Liang En Shuo in the first round.