Eala battles home bet Grabher in first round of Linz Open in Austria

AND Alexandra “Alex” Eala is on to the clay season.

The Filipina tennis pride will begin her campaign on a tougher surface against home bet Julia Grabher in the first round of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open on Tuesday at the Design Center in Linz.

Game time is at 5 p.m. (Manila time) with Ms. Eala looking to earn another shot at world No. 23 and multi-Grand Slam champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who gained a first-round bye as the No. 4 seed in the 32-player main draw.

This will be Ms. Eala’s debut in Austria, a 500-level tourney serving as the first event for the clay season leading up to the Roland Garros on May 24 to June 7 in Paris.

Ms. Eala will come into Austria brimming with hunger to regain lost glory after a free fall in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings.

The 20-year-old ace, who reached a career-best ranking at No. 29 last month, fell one spot anew this week from No. 45 to No. 46 due to inactivity as she returned to home base at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain to train for the clay season.

Ms. Eala, who reunited with fellow Rafael Nadal Academy product and world No. 4 Iga Swiatek of Poland in Mallorca, Spain, had a massive drop in the world rankings after a Last 16 finish in the Miami Open, failing to protect her 390 rankings points from reaching the final four last year in the same tourney.

With Ms. Eala now having no points to protect for the rest of the season, she’s expected to regain the said ranking points and climb the WTA ladder anew.

And that will start in Austria, where she looms as the heavy favorite against the Ms. Grabher, WTA No. 89.

After the Linz Open, Ms. Eala will troop to Germany for the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart on April 13 to 19 before returning to the Mutua Madrid Open in Spain on April 21 to May 3.

All of these tourneys will serve as Ms. Eala’s build-up for the French Open featuring the world tennis titans led by the Top 5 players in Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, reigning champion Coco Gauff of the United States, Ms. Swiatek and another American Jessica Pegula. — John Bryan Ulanday