(UPDATE) THE string of early exits certainly did damage to Alex Eala's place at the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings.From reaching a career-best 134th, the Filipino tennis ace dropped to 139th in the latest ranking on Feb. 10.Eala last saw action at the W125 Mumbai tourney in India where she fell to Japanese Mai Hontama in the second round, 6-7 (7), 2-6, to exit the singles division on Feb. 5.The 19-year-old got the early boot in the doubles division, too, as she and Taiwanese Tsao Chia-yi succumbed to the Russian duo of Elena Pridankina and Amina Anshba, 4-6, 4-6, in the first round.Prior to Mumbai, Eala lost to Swiss Simona Waltert, 3-6, 2-6, in the second round of the Singapore Tennis Open qualifiers.Winner of five singles titles, Eala also suffered a 4-6, 4-6 second round upset loss to Slovenian Dalila Jakupovic in the W100 Bengaluru.The 5-foot-8 lefty fell to Croatian Jana Fett, 7-5, 6-2, in the first round of the Australian Open qualifiers, too.Thus far, the only deep run Eala has made this 2025 season was her semifinal finish at the W125 Canberra International, which was her first tournament of the year.Despite being unseeded, Eala made it to the semis where she yielded to Chinese Wei Sijia, 5-7, 2-6.
