Eala set for biggest test yet at W60 Bellinzona
Fifteen-year-old Alexandra Eala is set to compete in the biggest tournament of her fledgling career on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W60 Bellinzona next week.
Eala has entered into the main draw for the Swiss clay court tournament by virtue of a junior exempt entry, which grants Top 20 juniors from the previous year a spot in up to five ITF World Tennis Tour events.
Eala, who at the tender age of 15 has already contested 11 professional women’s tournaments and collected her first title at W15 Manacor in January, is set for her biggest taste of competition to date in south Switzerland on 5-11 April.
The main draw acceptance list for W60 Bellinzona includes 15 players ranked inside the WTA Top 200, including the likes of No. 118 Oceane Dodin, No. 125 Katarina Zavatska and No. 134 Xiyu Wang.
No. 138 Tamara Korpatsch, Romanians Jacqueline Adina Cristian (No. 160) and Elena Gabriela Ruse (No. 163) are also due to feature, along with Germans Antonia Lottner, the world No. 184, and No. 186 Mona Barthel.
In-form Yuki Naito is also set to take part, a week after the 20-year-old Japanese player won her fourth W25-level title in Buenos Aires.
Former world No. 38 Rebecca Marino also features on the main draw acceptance list, for what would be only her fifth event since summer 2019.
The 32-year-old Canadian, who spent nearly five years away from tennis between 2013 and 2017 citing burnout and depression, saw her return to the sport threatened by an 18-month injury nightmare that has further restricted her playing time.
Marino returned to the tour in Australia in January, where she made her first Grand Slam appearance in eight years, and is set for her first tournament appearance since that Melbourne trip next week.
World No. 167 Anhelina Kalinina, No. 181 Cagla Buyukakcay and No. 194 Georgina Garcia-Perez are also set to feature, while Jia-Jing Lu, Martina Di Giuseppe and Laura-Ioana Paar complete the list of top 200-ranked players in the main draw.
The field might look daunting for most players ranked outside the world's top 700, let alone one as young as Eala. But having already dealt with the attention that came with winning her first professional title at Rafael Nadal's eponymous academy in Manacor where she trains (she's reached three consecutive pro quarter-finals since then), Eala will likely take this next step in her stride too.
One of only five 15-year-olds to have won a professional women's title in the last three years, Eala certainly isn't any old teenager - ringing endorsements from a 20-time Grand Slam champion confirm that.