Alex Eala faces tough draw at Linz

Alex Eala does have feet of clay. And no, it is not just her serve that we are talking about here. The surface also happens to be among her weakest, as she did not progress past the second round in any of the claycourt tournaments she played last year. But having said that, her recent visit to the Rafael Nadal Academy would really have buoyed her.

The Filipina superstar trained along with former world No. 1 and four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek at the Spaniard’s backyard. Eala is a graduate of the academy and with her ranking plummeting to No 45 from No 29 following her underwhelming run at the Miami Open where she reached the semi-finals last year, the left-handed counter-puncher will be hoping to resurrect her season again, having signed up for WTA 500 tournaments in Linz and Stuttgart and WTA 1000 event in Madrid in what will be a very busy April for her.

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Her first match on clay will be on Monday against world No 87 Julia Grabher in their Round of 32 clash. In an event that also features big names like world No 10 Mirra Andreeva and defending champion Ekaterina Alexandrova among others, the 20-year-old Filipina’s path gets tougher from thereon.

If Eala defeats the Austrian player, she will face 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the Linz Open second round. The Filipina has beaten the Latvian in two of their previous meetings but they have come on hard court and grass. Clay will be a different ball game altogether.

If she survives that and goes on to win her third round match, top seed Andreeva awaits her in the semi-finals. But given Eala’s rise over the past 13 months, a feat on clay is definitely not beyond the realms of possibility.