JUST days after hitting a career-high No. 29 in the official WTA rankings, Alex Eala fell to around No. 50 in the live and unofficial rankings, as the Miami Open main draw got underway, following the expiration of points from her breakthrough run last year.
READ: Alex Eala records new career-high ranking at No. 29
In the WTA’s 52-week ranking system, players lose points earned from the same event in the previous season once that tournament begins anew.
Eala had 390 points from her 2025 semifinal finish in Miami. With the new edition now in play, roughly 380 of those points dropped from her total, resulting in the slide.
She opens her campaign in the Round of 64 after receiving a first-round bye as one of the tournament’s 32 seeded players, and will take on Laura Siegemund.
READ: This German may pose problems for Eala right away in Miami. Find out why
The timing leaves little room to recover lost ground. Miami is the final stretch of the hard-court swing before the tour shifts to clay, meaning opportunities to earn similar points on the same surface are limited.
How Alex rises again
What happens next is straightforward.
A short run leaves most of those dropped points unrecovered, which can keep her ranking lower in the short term. A deeper run, conversely, would offset the loss and stabilize her position heading into a different phase of the season.
After Miami, Eala is also set to compete at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz, scheduled from April 6 to 12, 2026 — likely marking her first clay-court appearance of the season.
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