Alex Eala has truly joined the WTA Tour elite thank to her recent performances over the summer months.

The Filipina was very impressive on the grass as she won the Birmingham Open challenger and followed it up by reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon and the semi finals of the Berlin Open.

She continued to hit the ground running on the North American hardcourt swing by winning her very first WTA title at the Washington Open.

Eala defeated Jessica Pegula, Elina Svitolina, and Naomi Osaka consecutively to claim the WTA 500 title and she’s climbed the rankings as a result.

Prior to the US Open, Eala currently sits at world No 18 on the WTA Tour rankings, which has seen her make Southeast Asian history in the women’s game.

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Eala is now the highest ranked player from that region in the history of the WTA Tour.

He recent jump up in the rankings has seen her surpass Indonesia’s Yayuk Basuki and Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn, both of whom reached a ranking high of world No 19 in their careers.

Eala has just missed out on entering the US Open inside the top 16 of the WTA Tour rankings, which would have given her a kinder draw in the early rounds.

Nevertheless, the 21-year-old is one of the dark horses for the event thanks to her recent form.

Ahead of her second-ever main draw appearance at the US Open, Eala will also be making her debut in the US Open Mixed Doubles Challenge.

Eala will play alongside Felix Auger-Aliassime in the high-profile event and the duo now know who they will come up against at Flushing Meadows.

Auger-Aliassime and Eala have been drawn against Svitolina and Gael Monfils, the married couple who will be playing the event for the first and only time, due to the Frenchman’s impending retirement at the end of the 2026 season.

Should Eala and Auger-Aliassime find a way past Svitolina and Monfils, the draw will not get any easier for the star-studded pair.

They could play Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka next, who play Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe in their opening round match.

Other teams in the draw for the US Open Mixed Doubles include: Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz, Learner Tien and Amanda Anisimova, and Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli.

Last year’s event was won by Sara Errani and Andreas Vavassori, who were very outspoken about the starrier, more controversial, new format for mixed doubles at the US Open.

“Making decisions just following the logic of profit is profoundly wrong in some situations,” the Italian doubles pair wrote in a statement before winning the title.

“In the last few weeks we received the news that the US Open mixed doubles tournament will be completely turned upside down, cancelled and replaced with a pseudo-exhibition focused only on entertainment and show.

“We see it as a profound injustice that disrespects an entire category of players. We don’t know at the moment if we’ll have the chance to defend our title but we hope this remains an isolated case.”

Errani and Vavassori are playing Andrey Rublev and Mirra Andreeva in the first round.