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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Alex Eala faces Croatian in first round of Aussie Open qualifying

Alex Eala faces Croatian in first round of Aussie Open qualifying

Published Jan 6, 2025 04:52 am

At A Glance

  • Alex Eala opens her Grand Slam season campaign at the 2025 Australian Open when she competes in the qualifying round on Tuesday, Jan. 7, in Melbourne.

Alex Eala opens her Grand Slam season campaign at the 2025 Australian Open when she competes in the qualifying round on Tuesday, Jan. 7, in Melbourne.

Eala, who is currently ranked No. 138 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), is scheduled to clash with Jana Fett of Croatia in the opening round of the qualifiers boasting of 128 players.

alex eala
Alex Eala opens her Grand Slam season at the Australian Open qualifying. (File Photo/Alex Eala Facebook)

On paper, the 28-year-old Fett is more experienced than Eala, 19, after having debuted in the Grand Slams in 2018. So far, though, Fett only managed to make it past the second round twice -- at the 2018 Australian Open and last year’s French Open.

Fett is also four rungs above Eala in the WTA rankings at No. 134 and has ranked as high as No. 97 in 2017.

Eala, for her part, debuted in the Grand Slams at the 2023 Australian Open after earning a spot in the qualifiers and has so far still seeking a breakthrough performance of making it to the main draw round.

To make it to the main draw, Eala would need to win three qualifying matches.

She almost managed to make it to the main draw three times last year, but lost in her third match at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open.

If she prevails against Fett, she would next face the winner between Slovakia’s Viktoria Hruncakova and Austria’s Sinja Kraus.

Eala is coming off a stint at the Workday Canberra International last week where she lost in the semifinals to Wei Sijia of China. So far, she boasts of five International Tennis Federation (ITF) singles titles.

“Fought hard last week, but the path in 2025 has just begun. Next stop: Australian Open,” Eala wrote in a social media post.

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