Eala soars to No. 68 live ranking in beating Ostapenko in Eastbourne

On the heels of another giant win against a former Grand Slam champion, the 20-year-old Filipina sensation soared to No. 68 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) live rankings ahead of her quarterfinal stint in the 2025 Lexus Eastbourne Open in England.

Ms. Eala now sports 932 points, up from 875 at No. 74 before the tourney to reset her previous high at No. 69 following her Miami Open semifinal run three months ago.

The live rankings will be officially updated by the WTA next week with Ms. Eala having a pretty chance to rise even higher.

The proud graduate of the elite Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain did it by scoring a repeat win over injured Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 0-6, 6-2, 3-2, via walkover in Eastbourne late Wednesday night.

The 20-year-old Ms. Eala was to shoot for a seat in the Final Four at press time (9:30 p.m., Manila time) against WTA No. 52 Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, who beat home bet and WTA No. 125 Francesca Jones, 6-2, 6-1, in the other quarterfinal pairing.

Winner marches on to the semis against either Varvara Gracheva (WTA No. 111) of France or world No. 17 and Eastbourne’s No. 2 seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic.

“Eastbourne quarterfinalist!,” said Ms. Eala, now 2-0 against world No. 20 Ms. Ostapenko, who was the French Open champion in 2017.

Ms. Eala, who’s bracing for her Wimbledon main draw debut on June 30 to July 11 in London, made it happen behind a great resolve, bouncing back from a shutout in the first set as she wore down the heavy favorite until her unfortunate injury in the decider. She unleashed 3-1 starts in both the second and third sets to steal the pace from the third-seeded Ms. Ostapenko, who later on tweaked her ankle and was forced to retire for the Filipina’s win in one hour and 37 minutes.

Ms. Eala back in the Miami Open also stunned Ms. Ostapenko, 7-6(2-), 7-5, to ignite a run against three Top-10 players and former Grand Slam champions including wins against the then world No. 2 Iga Swiatek of Poland and world No. 5 Madison Keys of the United States.

That stellar campaign ultimately landed Ms. Eala inside the Top 100 of the WTA rankings all the way from No. 140 to become eligible for all main draws of major and WTA 1000 tournaments.

And she’s just getting started. — John Bryan Ulanday