Alex Eala Ends 2026 at World No. 15, the Best Ranking of Her Career
Alex Eala ends 2026 as the 15th-ranked tennis player in the world. The WTA rankings released Monday moved her up two places from No. 17. It is the highest ranking of her career and the first time she has been inside the top 16. She is 21.
She began the year at No. 50
Eala opened the season ranked 50th. She closes it 35 places higher.
The climb came in steps. In March she became the first Filipino to break into the WTA top 30, reaching No. 29 after a run to the round of 16 at Indian Wells. On grass she won the Birmingham WTA 125 title and reached the semifinals in Berlin. At Wimbledon she beat defending champion Iga Swiatek and went on to the fourth round, where Jasmine Paolini stopped her.
One week in Washington
In August she won the DC Open, the first WTA Tour singles title by a Filipino. Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen was waiting in her first round. Eala went on to beat Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals and Naomi Osaka in the semifinals, then came back to beat Pegula in the final. The next rankings put her inside the top 20 for the first time.
A final played on a taped leg
Her season ended Sunday in the Hong Kong Open final. Claire Liu, ranked 102nd, won 6-3, 6-0. Eala played with heavy strapping on her right leg and spoke to the crowd through tears. She told them the season had “changed my life for the better.”
Liu used her own victory speech to say Eala is the player to lead women’s tennis forward.
A number she did not see coming
An hour after the final, Eala told reporters she had not known that finishing the year at No. 15 was in the cards. “Dreams are only dreams until they’re not,” she said.
Tennis and the life around it
In March, Eala said tennis could not be her whole life. At 20, she said, she needed time outside the sport, because the season is long. She went on to play more matches than any other player on tour, and she competed in all four Grand Slams for the first time. She also skipped the WTA 1000 in Beijing to play for the Philippines at the Asian Games, and came home with bronze.
Eala is 21. At the Hong Kong ceremony she said, “This is only the beginning.”
