Legendary coach Rick Macci has assessed that Alex Eala will be in the mix for the world No 1 ranking if she “overhauls” one area of her game.

Eala climbed to her career-high ranking of world No 20 last week following her run to the fourth round at the Canadian Open.

The Filipina superstar is up to 18th in the Live WTA Rankings after her third round exit at the Cincinnati Open, where she won one match.

The 21-year-old is 15th in the WTA Race rankings, which measures the ranking points collected in the current season.

Eala won her maiden title at the WTA 500 tournament in Washington DC earlier this month.

In a post on Twitter/X, Macci — who is a former coach of Serena and Venus Williams — called for Eala to improve her serve biomechanically.

“Eala has the baseline foundation off either side to give it a ride,” Macci wrote.

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“Her movement will be tested by big hitters as like others they do not give her many sitters.

“She can add pieces to her game like the slice and drop [shot] and that alone will keep sending her near the top.

“Her serve, if a totally science based biomechanical overhaul can be done, look for the Philippine Machine in the future to [be] right in there for number one.”

In another tweet, Macci added: “Looking at the big picture, the Philippine Machine needs to bring in SCIENCE BASED APPROACH with her serve as this is very complex and hard for most to really understand the culprit or origin and not a symptom.

“If her serve is rewired properly from the ground up in sync with the racquet drop Alex has a shot at the top.

“She would have a 115 mph Lefty Laser not a broken Taser. Most of all the second serve would be 95 mph with kick on the ball.”

Eala’s next appearance will be in the mixed doubles event at the US Open, where she will partner ATP Tour star Felix Auger-Aliassime.

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