Alex Eala will be stacked against a Swedish veteran when she starts her journey to the Australian Open main draw on Tuesday at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia.
The 18-year-old Eala will be facing 28-year-old Rebecca Peterson in her first match of the Australian Open qualifying round at Court 13 at 7 a.m. (Manila time).
Peterson is no easy foe.
Holding a Women’s Tennis Association ranking of No. 128, Peterson is a seasoned campaigner who made it to the second round of the Australian Open in 2019 and 2022, French Open in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023, Wimbledon in 2018, and third round of the US Open in 2018.
She represented Sweden in the Tokyo Olympics and made it as far as the second round.
Should Eala survive the aggressive, seasoned Peterson, she needs to win two more matches before booking a return ticket to the Australian Open main draw.
In preparation for the qualifiers, Eala spent his holidays in the Philippines and trained under the watchful eyes of Rafael Nadal Academy mentors led by Dani Gomez of Brazil.
Then, she joined the Canberra International in which she suffered an early exit in the women’s singles event following a 4-6, 5-7 loss to Celine Naef of Switzerland.
Eala, however, had some measure of success in the women’s doubles as she and her Brazilian teammate Laura Pigossi advanced to the semifinals before bowing to the Australian pair of Astra Sharma and Kaylah McPhee, 6-7, 3-6.
Still, Eala will be entering the Australian Open qualifiers oozing with momentum as she reached her highest WTA ranking of No. 185.
Eala will also be competing with fire in her eyes as she surrendered a 6-4, 6-7, 3-6 loss to Japan’s Misaki Doi in the qualifying round of the first Grand Slam event of the year in 2023.
