Filipino tennis sensation and Globe ambassador Alex Eala is seeded number 2 in the juniors’ competition of the 2021 French Open at Roland Garros in Paris, France.
The 16-year-old, who is coming off to a rousing performance after reaching the finals of the women’s doubles event of the W25 Platja D’Aro in Spain with Russian partner Oksana Selekhmeteva, is currently the third best junior player in the world and ranked a career best 624th in the Women’s Tennis Association Tour.
Eala, however, will be the International Tennis Federation’s number 2 seed in the juniors tournament of the third grand slam event of the year. Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra is the tournament top seed while Russians Polina Kuedemetova is third and Diana Shnaider is number 4. American Robin Montgomery is the fifth seed.
Eala is looking forward to surpassing her performance last year when she reached the semifinals of Roland Garros.
In 2020, Eala partnered with Priska Nugroho of Indonesia to win the girls’ doubles tournament in the Australian Open.
Eala, a Rafa Nadal Academy scholar, got off to a sensational start this year, bagging her first-ever women’s singles professional title in January at the Rafa Nadal Academy World Tour in Manacor, Spain. Eala came back from an opening set loss to beat home favorite Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the finals. She then reached the quarterfinals of her next three tournaments. Eala also had decent showing in her recent singles campaign in Bellinzona, Switzerland; Grenoble, France; and Manacor, Spain. Eala likewise had a stint in the qualifying tournament of the 2021 Miami Open last March.
The Roland Garros Juniors Championships will start on June 6 until June 12, 2021.