Alex Eala has found some winning form at the Hong Kong Open and she has a chance to close in on a major rankings breakthrough if she continues her run.
Eala has struggled to find her best form over the last month, with first round defeats at tournaments in Wuhan and Ningbo backed up by a quarter-final defeat against Diana Shnaider at the WTA 5000 tournament in Tokyo last month.
Now Eala is aiming to pick up her second WTA Tour title of 2026, after her breakthrough win in Washington ignited a wave of popular support around the world for the Filipina superstar.
Eala is already certain to be seeded for the Australian Open in January, but she could enhance her chances of making a deep run in Melbourne if she can move into the top 16 of the WTA Rankings.
After moving up to No 17 in the live rankings, Eala may be eyeing up a leap into the upper levels of the rankings and that could be significant by the time she gets to the first Grand Slam of the new year.
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A tournament win for Eala in Hong Kong would fire her up to a career-high ranking of No 15, opening the door for even more leaps up the rankings heading into 2027.
If Eala is ranked at No 16 or higher at the Australian Open, her seeding would ensure she avoids a meeting with any player in the top 16 until at least the fourth round.
Being ranked at No 16 or 15 could be problematic, as that could me she would be scheduled to face the No 1 or No 2 seed in the fourth round, but so a ranking of No 14 or above would give Eala the best chance of making her deepest run at a major.
Her appearance in the last-16 at Wimbledon is her best performance to date in one of the sport’s biggest tournaments, and she will have a chance to collect more ranking points in the opening weeks of 2027 after confirming she will play in the WTA Tour event in Auckland in early January.
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Before then, she will take part in an exhibition event in front of her fans in the Philippines, as she will take on Indonesia’s Janice Tjen in an exhibition match that could be played in front of a crowd of 55,000.
There are still plenty of tickets left for the event at present, but reports claim 20,000 tickets have already been sold and a sell-out crowd would set a record for a tennis match.
The current record is held by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who played their Match for Africa in front of 51,954 people at a stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, in February 2020.
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