Rapid ranking rise fuels Alex Eala in French Open doubles bid

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Alex Eala climbs 70 spots in the live world doubles rankings as the Filipina tennis sensation looks to sustain her campaign in the French Open

MANILA, Philippines – At the beginning of May, Alex Eala ranked 456th in the world in women’s doubles.

This was expected since Eala had mostly played in singles in the pro tour. She had, in fact, seen action just twice in doubles in 2025 — in the WTA 125 Mumbai in India last February and in the WTA 125 Oeiras in Portugal in April.

In both tournaments, she got eliminated in the opening round.

The doubles trajectory of her career changed rapidly when she made the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 Italian Open with American superstar Coco Gauff early this month as the Filipina tennis standout jumped to 225th in the world rankings — a meteoric rise of 231 spots.

This helped her earn a spot in the doubles main draw of the French Open, making her the first Filipina to ever play in the women’s doubles of a Grand Slam event.

On Tuesday, May 27, the 20-year-old Eala made further history when she and Renata Zarazua of Mexico prevailed over Emily Appleton of Great Britain and Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers of Spain, 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the French Open at the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris.

That win boosted Zarazua’s live world rankings from 95 to 88. For Eala, the impact was even more significant — she now stands at 155th, a climb of 70 spots.

The Filipina and Mexican duo will aim to climb the world rankings further by chalking up another win at Roland Garros.

That, however, will be a challenging task as they go up against Olga Danilovic of Serbia and Anastasia Potapova of Russia in the second round on Friday night, May 30, Manila time.

Danilovic and Potapova pulled off a shocker in the opening round when they upset the seventh seeds, Filipino-American Desirae Krawczyk and Caroline Dolehide of the United States.

This is the third time that Danilovic and Potapova have partnered for doubles competition. The last tournament they played as a pair was in the Australian Open last January when they were eliminated in the opening round.

Danilovic, though not that active in women’s doubles, is playing the best tennis of her career this season, rising to a career-high 33rd in the singles world rankings in May.

She has scored two impressive wins thus far in the French Open, taking out 2021 US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez of Canada in the opening round and 2022 Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins of the United States in the second round.

The Serbian No.1 player will face world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the third round on Friday, May 30.

Potapova is currently 37th in singles and 169th in doubles in the world rankings. The Russian reached a career-high 40th in 2022 after reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the second round of the French Open and the US Open.

A possible opponent for the winner of the clash between Eala-Zarazua and Danilovic-Potapova could be 12th seeds Tereza Mihalikova of the Slovak Republic and Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain, runners-up in this year’s WTA 1000 Indian Wells. – Rappler.com

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