Alex Eala is not too far away from being in the top five in the world and challenging for Grand Slams if she can make one or two tweaks to her game.

That is according to former world No 4 Greg Rusedski, who believes the 21-year-old is capable of turning the relative weakness of her serve into more of a strength heading into the 2027 season.

Despite the Filipina closing in on the top 20, Eala is 58th on the WTA Tour when it comes to aces, 89th for percentage of service games won, and 62nd for percentage of second serve points won.

Even for return games won and return points won, the WTA website has her down in 95th at 35.4% and 43.7%, respectively. This, arguably, highlights how tough she is to beat from the baseline.

Before the completion of her Washington Open final with Jessica Pegula, Rusedski hailed the left-hander as the “most exciting” player on the women’s tour. Moreover, if she can add a few extra mph on her first and especially second serve delivery, she could start crashing the game’s elite.

More Alex Eala News

Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for tennis coverage you can trust.

He said on the latest episode of Off Court with Greg Rusedski, “From my point of view, the most exciting player on the WTA tour is Eala because of the way she plays; she’s fearless. She takes the ball early. She’s a lefty.

“The one area to win a major, I still think that she needs in her game, is to get that serve a little bit better, a little bit more powerful. And I was listening to [Andrea] Petkovic, who’s one of the best pundits in the world, talking about and comparing her to Eugenie Bouchard when Bouchard made her Grand Slam final, of how early she takes the ball, how aggressively she plays.

“But then with Eugenie, it kind of went off the rails a little bit where she didn’t have that pop on her serve and she couldn’t keep that up and certain injuries came in. But Eala, you feel there’s something different. Her mentality is so good. She’s so strong.

“So from my point of view, she’s a little bit of the dark horse. She’s not quite ready, in my opinion, to win a major, but we have seen stranger things. I think maybe next year, if she can get that improvement on the serve, then she’s definitely in the mix because the rest of her game is there.”

After Washington, Eala will join a host of top women’s players duking it out to win the Canadian Masters in Toronto over the next week or so.

Eala is seeded 25th at the tournament and will face either Alycia Parks or Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva in round two. Despite not being in action until Wednesday, tickets for her encounter have already sold out, illustrating her popularity.

Rusedski likened her to a certain Serena Williams in that regard, while also explaining how her lefty serve can bail her out of trouble despite not having a particularly powerful delivery.

The former British No 1 continued, “I believe for her first match in Toronto, it’s a full sell-out, you know, opening match, which is unheard of. The only person who was doing that before her was Serena Williams. That’s how big she is. And for me, she is nothing but a positive for the game.

“And if that serve can get up to where second serves hitting about 75 to 80 miles an hour at the first, probably going about 105, she’s in the top five. And then we’re talking about her winning majors. So that’s the area where she’s got to get better.

“Her team knows that if everybody’s talking about it in the media, she’s clever enough, she’s got a great coaching staff, they know these things have to change and they’ll build it up gradually and they’ll get there in time.

“And we all have little things we’ve got to keep on working on. But the nice thing is she’s a lefty. Being a lefty, you can get away with a little bit less speed because of the spin of the ball, the way it slides. There’s not too many lefties on the WTA tour at the moment in the women’s game.”

Eala ended up coming back to win in three sets as she became the first Filipina to win a WTA Tour title. Moreover, she also cracked the top 20 for the first time.

WHAT NEXT? Alex Eala praised by Roger Federer’s former coach after Naomi Osaka win