Alex Eala shifts focus to Strasbourg Open ahead of French Open

ALEXANDRA “ALEX” EALA will be heading straight to France for one final tune-up tournament leading up to the French Open after skipping one more scheduled campaign in Italy.

Ms. Eala was previously listed in the main draw of the WTA 125 Parma Ladies Open, which already started on Wednesday. Parma was a city neighboring Rome, where she just opted to play in the doubles of the Italian Open after a singles exit.

The 20-year-old Filipina now shifts her focus to the WTA 500 Strasbourg Open, where she’s officially added to the qualifying draw. Her stint in Strasbourg, a city near Paris, was supposed to depend on her Parma Ladies Open campaign.

It will serve as her final preparation for the queen of clay, the French Open on May 24 to June 7 in Paris.

Ms. Eala will be bringing a bevy of lessons to France after productive campaigns in four clay tournaments, highlighted by her first career third-round finish in the Italian Open.

There, she stood her ground against top-ranked opponents with two wins before bowing to world No. 2 Elena Rybakina, who scored a hard-earned 6-4, 6-3 win in the Round of 32.

In the same tourney, Ms. Eala and American partner Hailey Baptiste came in as late replacements in the doubles but were eliminated early by the second-seeded Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova (world doubles No. 1) and USA’s Taylor Townsend (world doubles No. 2), 6-2, 6-1.

“There’s lot of things to work on and learn from this but I think I’m in a good way,” said Ms. Eala.

Before France, Ms. Eala also refined her bearings in the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open in Austria (second round), the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany (first round), and the Mutua Madrid Open (second round).

Her solid play so far is projected to push her back inside the Top 40 (No. 38) from No. 42 as per the WTA live rankings, which will be updated after the Italian Open, approaching the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the season. — John Bryan Ulanday