UNLESS Alexandra “Alex” Eala replicates her final 4 finish last yr within the Miami Open, she’s tipped to drastically fall within the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings with at the least a 20-spot drop following the expiration of rating points on Thursday.
The essential draw of the WTA-1000 level tour kicked off on Wednesday, scrapping all of the points harvested by all players in last yr’s edition, including 390 from Ms. Eala after a stellar run all the way in which from a wildcard within the qualifiers to being the primary WTA semifinalist.
And as per the WTA live rankings, the effect is in full force instantly because it dragged Ms. Eala to No. 50 from a brand new career-best of No. 29 this week following a Last 16 finish within the Indian Wells Open with 1525 points.
She’s back to 1145 now and will she fail to go deep while the players ahead of her advance farther, Ms. Eala could slip to the border of Top 60.
In total, Ms. Eala only lost 380 points to date, getting 10 points back attributable to a first-round bye because the No. 31 seed within the stacked 128-player field headlined by Top 32 players in addition to former and current Grand Slam champions.
The official WTA rating update will reflect on Monday on a weekly basis and it’s on Ms. Eala to show the tide starting with a Round 2 duel against No. 53 Laura Siegemund of Germany, who beat No. 76 Petra Marcinko of Croatia, 6-4, 6-4, in Round 1.
Mses. Eala and Siegemund were scheduled to battle before lunch on Wednesday but it surely has been pushed back to 12 a.m. (Manila time) on the earliest after heavy rains disrupted other matches in Miami.
Her first duel, albeit in Round 2 already, will set the tone on whether she could get those points back or lose it altogether. She needs 4 wins to do it and return to the semifinals, where either her good friend and world No. 4 Coco Gauff or No. 6 Amanda Anisimova might be waiting.
Inch by inch, she could trim the deduction with 35, 65, 120 and 215 points up for grabs in Rounds 2, 3, 4 and quarterfinals, respectively.
And giants within the lower bracket are waiting in line to foil that.
After Ms. Siegemund, at least world No. 3 Iga Swiatek of Poland with some heavy ax to grind possibly awaits Ms. Eala by the third round. Ms. Swiatek was a part of Ms. Eala’s titan-slaying spree in Miami that shattered the gates wide open for her rise, alongside Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko and USA’s Madison Keys, before she fell against world No. 5 Jessica Pegula also from the USA.
Ms. Swiatek, also with a first-round bye because the No. 2 seed in Miami, will face her compatriot Magda Linette in Round 2. Ms. Linette, WTA No. 50, stormed back against France’s Varvara Gracheva, 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.
World No. 14 Karolina Muchova of Czechia or No. 16 Clara Tauson of Denmark by Round 4 after which either world No. 9 Victoria Mboko of Canada or No. 10 Mirra Andreeva of Russia are projected to face in the way in which in the following two rounds for Ms. Eala to get within the semis.
“Run it back,” she beamed, declaring an all-out battle to guard what’s hers and to prove that she belongs among the many world’s better of the perfect.
Meanwhile, reigning champion and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus or world No. 2 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan headline the upper bracket and needs to be in a collision course for the opposite finale slot. — John Bryan Ulanday