Eala top seed player in Portugal tiff

MANILA, Philippines -- Filipino tennis ace Alex Eala is the highest ranked player at the Oeiras Ladies Open in Portugal and thereby seeded no. 1 in the tournament.The draw is not available yet for the competition which is set from April 14 to 20.Eala's historic semifinals run at the Miami Open where she toppled three Grand Slam winners sent her from 140th to 75th in the WTA rankings.In the latest rankings released last week, Eala even climbed two notches to achieve a new career-best ranking at 73rd.Despite being the highest ranked player in this Oeiras tourney, Eala will still have her work cut out as the other seven seeded players achieved career-high rankings higher than hers, posing a threat to the 19-year-old.For example, American Katie Volynets, the second seed in the tourney, is 80th in the rankings but went as high as 56th.Italian Elisabeta Cocciaretto (89th), Hungarian Anna Bordar (91st), Swiss Viktoria Golubic (93rd), Chinese Yuan Ye (101th), Spanish Nuria Parrizas Diaz (111th), and Romanian Sorana Cirstea (117th) rounded out the eight seed players in the tourney in that order.This $168,100 prize tourney is Eala's first in the clay season which culminates at the French Open next month which she confirmed she's going to join, having direct entry now as part of the top 100 players in the world."Of course, I'm excited for the Grand Slams ahead, Roland Garros," the lefty Eala said in a press conference last Tuesday."I know that I will be in the main draw. So I'm very excited about that. My first time to be in the main draw. So it's a new experience and everything to gain."Eala will join one more tournament before Roland Garros slated from May 25 to June 8 as she will compete at the Mutua Madrid Open in Spain from April 22 to May 4.