Alex Eala swept past Xinyun Han of China, 6-1, 7-6, in the qualifying round of the Women’s Tennis Association 250 Thailand Open on Saturday in the resort city of Hua Hin.
Eala, 17, defeated No. 898 Han in one hour and 53 minutes in her first WTA 250 tournament of the year and will face Kristina Dmitruk of Belarus today in the second qualifying round.
The 17-year-old scholar of the Rafael Nadal Academy, ranked No. 214 in the WTA leaderboard, will need to win one more match to enter the main draw.
She is also looking to make a deep run after an early exit in the Australian Open last 9 January after a 6-4, 6-7, 3-6 loss to Misaki Doi of Japan in the first game of the qualifying round.
The Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist is also looking to get into the WTA main draw again since being part of the WTA Miami Open last year.
The farthest Eala has reached in a WTA tournament was in the Round of 16 in the WTA 250 Winners Open at Cluj-Napoca in Romania last year.
While Eala has reached her highest rank in women’s singles at No. 214, she seeks to do better and hopefully, reach the top 100 of the WTA rankings.
“I am really content with my ranking right now. I think it can get me to a few good tournaments but it’s still not where I wanted to be,” Eala said in a previous report.
“I understand it’s a long process to get to the top 100 and stuff but that’s one of my big goals.”
