Alex Eala returned to the No. 2 spot in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior rankings on Monday, July 19 (Tuesday, July 20, Philippine time).

The Filipina teen tennis sensation tallied 2,786.25 points to become the second-best player in the juniors circuit behind top-ranked Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra, who leads with 2,991.75 points.

Eala overtook 2020 French Open girls singles champion Elsa Jacquemot, who now ranks No. 3.

This comes after the 16-year-old dominated the junior grade A tournament in Milan, Italy, where she won both the singles and doubles titles.

In the doubles, Eala partnered with American Madison Sieg as they defeated Croatia’s Lucija Circi Bagaric and Belgium’s Sofia Costoulas in the girls doubles final on Saturday, July 17.

She completed a double title romp the next day in the singles event where she cruised past Nikola Bartunkova of Czech Republic in the final.

The last time Eala reached world No. 2 was after the 2020 French Open juniors tournament, where she became the first Filipino to nail a last four berth in a junior Grand Slam since Felix Barrientos in the 1985 Wimbledon tournament.

In this year’s junior Grand Slams, Eala bagged her second title in the 2021 French Open girls doubles tournament with Russian partner Oksana Selekhmeteva.

The Filipina tennis ace also debuted in Wimbledon this year, but exited in the second round of both the singles and doubles events.

Eala currently ranks world No. 634 in the women’s circuit, where she made a mark with a maiden pro title at the start of the year in the W15 Manacor. – Rappler.com