Alex Eala withdraws from W15 Antalya

Filipino tennis wunderkind Alex Eala withdrew her participation in the W15 Antalya tournament in Turkey due to the Covid-19 situation in the country.

As of Friday, Turkey has over 4.7 million Covid-19 cases, more than 490,000 of which are active ones.

“I’ve withdrawn from my W15 tournaments in Turkey due to Covid conditions there,” wrote the 15-year-old Eala on her Facebook page on Friday.

“Nevertheless, I continue to train on clay and my next tournament will be W25 in Platja D’Aro, Spain on May 17. Let’s continue to take care of each other by continuing to wear masks.”

The 5-foot-9 Eala last saw action in the W60 Bellinzona tournament in Switzerland last month, when she reached the round-of-16.

In Switzerland, she defeated Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) No. 323 Margot Yerolymos of France and WTA No. 134 Laura-Ioana Paar of Rome before bowing to Simona Waltert of Switzerland in their round-of-16 duel.

Eala’s performance shoved her up by 55 notches in the WTA rankings, rising from 715th to 660th in the world.

Eala, ranked third in the world juniors division, has won 14 of her 21 matches this season. She opened the year by bagging her first professional title in the first leg of the W15 Manacor tournament in Spain in January.