Eala embarks on pre-French Open stint

The Philippines’ Alexandra Eala reacts after a point against Japan’s Himeno Sakatsume during their women’s singles at the Philippine Women’s Open tennis tournament in Manila on January 28, 2026.

Ted Aljibe / AFP

MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala will have one more tournament in France before strutting her stuff against the world’s tennis titans in the French Open later this month.

After her two scheduled Italian stints, Eala on Sunday has also been listed for the Internationaux de Strasbourg Open from May 17-23 that will serve as the pre-tournament for the Roland Garros in Paris from May 24 to June 7.

Eala will play in the qualifying round, hoping to make it to the main draw as part of her final build-up after the Internazionali BNL D’Italia (Italian Open) in Rome from May 5-17 and the WTA125 Parma Ladies Open in the nearby city from May 12-17.

Her main focus will be the Italian Open, a 1000-level WTA Tour as her availability in the next two tournaments will depend on her campaign there.

Overall, it will be Eala’s fourth, fifth and sixth clay tourney as a long preparation for the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the season, after a first-round exit last year against Colombia’s Emiliana Arango, 0-6, 6-2, 3-6.

The clay surface has proven to be Eala’s Achilles heel so far this season after not getting past the second round in her last three tournaments.

After the Miami Open, a hard court tournament, Eala exited in the second round of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open in Austria and in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany.

Her latest foray was a 6-2, 6-1 defeat to world No. 21 Elise Mertens of Belgium in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open, also 1000-level joust.

In the same tourney, Eala and Turkish friend Zeynep Sonmez also bowed out in the double second round against the powerhouse duo of Katerina Siniakova of Czechia (World Doubles No. 2) and Taylor Townsend of the United States (World No. 5), 6-1, 7-5.

That campaign is expected to push Eala slightly upper in the WTA rankings at No. 42 with 1285 points from No. 44 as per the live rankings.

She’s also projected to reach a new-career best of No. 88 in the doubles rankings from No. 99 with 888 points.

But first things first for Eala and that’s to smash for a deep campaign in the Italian Open after a 6-0, 6-1 first-round defeat against world No. 23 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.

The Italian Open is expected to release the official draw today at the start of the qualifying round as Eala awaits her opponent in the Round of 128.