Andrea Petkovic believes that the hardest work is yet to come for Alex Eala as she tries to rise up the rankings.
Eala has become one of tennis’ biggest stars over the past year or so, during which time she has climbed into the world’s top 20.
The 21-year-old reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and won her first WTA Tour title at the 500 event in Washington, but she is still a way off competing for the biggest trophies and rivalling the game’s elite.
The world No 19 is preparing for the Wuhan Open, where he will play qualifier Shi Han in the first round. And while former top 10 player Petkovic believes the Filipina deserves a lot of credit, being consistently at the top of the sport is an arduous task – something top two Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina can attest to.
She said on The Big T podcast, “The oxygen gets lower and lower. That’s exactly how it feels when you’re climbing the rankings in the WTA. That is the beauty of the sport but is also the suffocating part when you get to the top.
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“I think the reason why we should give so much respect to these players like Aryna Sabalenka and why I thought it was such an incredible feat of Elena Rybakina reaching that top spot [in the rankings] because it’s really the most difficult thing to do in tennis, maybe harder than winning a major.
“It’s easier to catch to lightning for two weeks than be a steady, consistent top player, month in, month out, year after year and it’s been incredible to see for these players who are at the very top.”
Moreover, former British player Mark Petchey is full of admiration for the left-hander, who started the year ranked 50th in the world. However, he stressed that many big hurdles lie ahead of her.
“Things are going to slow up. It’s inevitable. She’s been on this meteoric rise, rightly so there’s a huge love-in and then it gets tougher. It gets slower and slower; the gear turns to get you from 18 to 15, and then it becomes one spot at a time,” he said.
“And with big gaps between points and huge tournaments that you need to go out there and win. It’s only going to get potentially worse as she goes through this even harder period. Not that it’s been easy to get where she has but this next part is going to be even harder.”
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