Alex Eala tipped to fall down the rankings and not break into the top 10 by Coco Gauff’s old coach

Alex Eala has enjoyed the best season of her career in 2026, which has been significant for her ranking.

Eala began the 2026 season ranked outside the top 50, having had a major breakthrough last year which enabled her to become a top 100 player.

The Filipina has taken it to another level this year, with Eala winning the Washington Open, as well as reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon and the final of the Hong Kong Open.

This has enabled Eala to end the year as the world number 15, which is a career-high ranking, but she has been predicted to drop down the rankings in 2027.

Alex Eala predicted to fall back in the rankings in 2027 by Brad Gilbert

Eala’s 2026 season was discussed on Tennis Channel, with the likes of Coco Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert, as well as former world number one Tracy Austin and former Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins debating whether she will be able to push on from this or will instead go backwards next year.

Gilbert predicted that Eala would drop in the rankings next year unless she is able to make significant improvements to her serve.

“I feel like she is closer to going backwards than she is moving into the top 10,” began Gilbert. The big shot for her, without a doubt, is that she does not have much leftiness whatsoever and no pace on her serve.

“It is so physically demanding the way that she plays, because she hits so many 73mph first serves that literally she just starts the point and by the end of the tournament she is taped up like a mummy.

“I think she is going to massively have to improve the serve. If she can incorporate a little leftiness and trains at it in the [Rafa] Nadal academy, maybe she could watch a few Rafa highlights of how he got it out there, and get her serve plus one to improve. If she can do that, I think she can be a top 10 player but if she does not improve her serve this off season I would say her ranking goes backwards in 2027.”

Austin and Collins also highlighted the importance of Eala’s serve, with the former suggesting that remaining in the top 15 should be a bigger goal rather than breaking the top 10.

“I would like to see her power first serve or the one that she goes big on a bit more consistently,” said Austin. “She clips the net a lot and that slice serve can be difficult, because it’s a lefty serve and it stays down so low.

“I am going to say that the goal for Alex Eala for 2027 is just to stay in the top 15 because there is a lot to defend. A lot has happened to this young lady in a year, the progression and being from Philippines and all the accolades.

“She has big wins and probably the biggest one was at Wimbledon where she beat Iga, that gave her so much confidence that she can compete at the top and then she won DC, her first title.”

Collins added, “I think she could benefit from having some big serves she could really rely on to get some free points and extra points but I do think some of her slower serves work in her favour sometimes.

“Sometimes the serve when it really slows down lures people in further into the court and when players are trying to step in and play aggressively she does a really good job of absorbing that pace and getting back on her feet. I think when she starts to play against more of these players consistently, especially the top ones, people are going to understand that about her game and they are going to make adjustments.

“Like Brad said I think she needs to focus on adding more mph to her serve, but having a variation where you can throw some slow ones in gets in the head of a lot of players and she certainly did that against some of the top players. “

Alex Eala’s ranking point breakdown from 2026

Eala has played more matches than any other player on the WTA Tour this year, competing across a total of 28 tournaments.

A player’s WTA ranking is made up of the four Grand Slam tournaments, six mandatory combined WTA 1000 tournaments, one non-mandatory WTA 1000 tournament, and then the next best seven results, with 11 of the tournaments Eala played this year not counting towards her ranking.

The biggest portion of Eala’s ranking points came from the grass court season and the North American hard court swing, which will be the time next year where she will have the most pressure to defend these points.

Eala’s best opportunity to earn ranking points will be during the start of the year leading into and including the Australian Open, as well as the clay court swing and parts of the Asian swing.

The top 10 of the WTA rankings is still some way off for Eala, who trails current world number 10 Marta Kostyuk by 1,518 points.

However, Eala is only 249 points from dropping outside the top 20, with current world number 21 Victoria Mboko not too far away from the Filipina.

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Esta notícia foi originalmente publicada em: Fonte original