TENNIS phenom Alex Eala continues to scale her way higher in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) girl’s Juniors rankings.
The 14-year-old Eala climbed two notches from 13th place to 11th to end the year with her career-best feat in the ITF World Girl’s Juniors as the doubles champion with Belarus’s Evialina Laskevich in the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championship last week.
But their doubles title didn’t came easy as they had to fend off the formidable American duo Savannah Broadus and Kylie Collins in the semifinals.
ala and Laskevich came back from a first set loss to the Americans before advancing to the final, 3-6, 6-1, 10-7.
Eala, who trains at the Rafa Nadal Academy, now also ranks No. 2 in Asia behind Japan’s Natsumi Kawaguchi (world’s No.6).
This year, Eala competed in 22 events and pulled 36 wins in 46 outings (78-percent win rate)—15 on clay surface—including the French and US Opens.
She started the year at No. 113.
France’s Diane Parry is the world’s No. 1, followed by Ukraine’s Darla Snigur, Canada’s Leylah Annie Fernandez,and US’s Emma Navarro and Alexa Noel.