MANILA, Philippines — Filipino tennis ace Alexandra 'Alex' Eala will play in a tournament in Auckland, New Zealand and Kooyong, Australia as warm up for her Australian Open debut.
The 20-year-old Eala will see action first at the ASB Classic, formerly known as Auckland Open, set from January 5 to 11.
World no. 53 Eala is seeded fourth in this 250-tier tournament.
Eala's familiar foes like Janice Tjen of Indonesia, Panna Udvardy of Hungary, and Katie Boulder of Great Britain are out to compete in the tournament, too.
World no. 56 Tjen is seeded fifth; no. 91 Udvardy 21st, and no. 106 Boulter a wildcard.
World no. 18 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine is the top seed of the competition.
Right after Auckland, Eala will swing to the Kooyong Classic in Australia from Jan. 13 to 15.
Playing in an exhibition format, Eala joins a pool of players including world no. 69 Donna Vekic of Croatia, no. 98 Priscilla Hon of Australia, and former 7-time WTA champ Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.
Before 2025 ends, Eala will also compete in another exhibition tourney at the Macau Masters in China this December 27 and 28.
The tournament serves as the final competition for Eala in 2025 highlighted by her breakout season in the WTA and a gold medal at the just concluded 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.
Eala ended the Philippines' 26-year gold drought in women's singles tennis play, and became the third overall Filipino champ in the biennial meet after Pia Tamayo at the 1981 Manila Games and Maricris Fernandez-Gentz at the 1999 Bandar Seri Begawan edition.