Alex Eala missed an opportunity to climb the WTA Rankings as she suffered a one-sided defeat in her opening match at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
The Filipina star was beaten 6-1, 6-4 by world No 25 Leylah Fernandez at the indoor clay-court WTA 500 event in Stuttgart on Tuesday.
World No 45 Eala was broken twice as Fernandez raced to a 5-0 lead en route to closing the opening set out in dominant fashion.
Fernandez secured two more breaks as she surged to a 5-2 advantage in the second set before she was broken for the only time when she served for the match.
Eala then saved two match points on her own serve at 3-5, but her 23-year-old Canadian opponent took her second opportunity to serve the match out.
In what was her first encounter with fellow left-hander Fernandez, Eala won just 46 of the 109 points (42%).
Fernandez will face either fifth seed Jasmine Paolini or qualifier Zeynep Sonmez in the second round in Stuttgart.
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Eala’s Stuttgart Open prize money and ranking points
Eala’s first round exit in Stuttgart has seen her earn $13,211 in prize money and collect a single WTA ranking point.
The 20-year-old started the week as the world No 45, and she is now 44th in the Live WTA Rankings on 1,285 points.
If Eala had won her opening match, she would have collected 60 points — which would have lifted her to a projected ranking of 38th.
A run to the quarter-finals in Stuttgart would have earned Eala 108 points and seen her climb as high as 32nd in the Live Rankings.
Eala reached her career-high ranking of world No 29 last month after her run to the fourth round at the WTA 1000 in Indian Wells.
WTA Stuttgart prize money and ranking points breakdown
Champion: €161,310 ($188,438) | 500 ranking points
Finalist: €99,565 ($116,309) | 325 ranking points
Semi-finalists: €57,395 ($67,047) | 195 ranking points
Quarter-finalists: €30,435 ($35,553) | 108 ranking points
Round of 16: €15,690 ($18,329) | 60 ranking points
First round: €11,309 ($13,211) | 1 ranking point
What next for Eala?
Eala is next scheduled to compete at the Madrid Open — the first clay-court WTA 1000 tournament of the season — which will begin on 21 April.
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The post Alex Eala: What ranking points & prize money did Filipina star earn at Stuttgart Open after 1R exit? appeared first on Tennis365.
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