Alex Eala is one of many players who has been impacted in the latest update of the WTA rankings.
Eala is gearing up for the end of her 2026 season at the Hong Kong Open, which will be the final tournament of what has been a very successful year for the Filipina.
The 21-year-old has not found as much success since the US Open, with Eala losing to Diana Shnaider in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Open in her most recent match.
Despite Eala being unable to reach the semi-finals of any of her last seven WTA tournaments, she has now actually been given a boost in terms of her ranking.
Alex Eala reaches career-high ranking after reaching Tokyo quarter-finals
Eala had a huge breakthrough season in 2025, which saw her come out of the blue to reach the Miami Open semi-finals and become a top 100 player for the first time in her career.
The 21-year-old has proven that this was certainly not a fluke, with Eala winning her first WTA title in Washington D.C. and reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time this year at Wimbledon.
Eala began the 2026 season ranked outside the top 50, and she was at a career-high ranking of world number 18 after the US Open this year. Eala had dropped down one place to world number 19 ahead of the Tokyo Open, but she has now climbed up two again to reach a new career-high of world number 17.
This is a significant achievement for Eala, who will end her season at the Hong Kong Open, and can still climb even further up the rankings if she makes a deep run at the WTA 250 tournament.
Eala is just 26 points behind world number 16 Naomi Osaka, who she will be aiming to overtake in Hong Kong as it could give her an advantage in Grand Slam draws next year.
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Leylah Fernandez and Harriet Dart rise up rankings while Victoria Mboko falls
Eala is certainly not the only player who has been updated in the latest update of the WTA rankings, with there being some other big movers.
The biggest tournament that took place on the WTA Tour last week was at the Tokyo Open, where the aforementioned Shnaider went on to win the title. Shnaider has subsequently climbed two places up to world number 11, but it is actually runner-up Leylah Fernandez who has enjoyed the biggest rise.
Fernandez has reached three finals since the US Open, including winning the Singapore Open title, and as a result has risen from outside the top 30 to inside the top 20. The latest rise has seen Fernandez climb five places up to world number 18, which is her highest ranking since August 2022.
The other WTA tournament last week took place in Guangzhou, where British player Harriet Dart won her first title. Dart was ranked outside the top 100 prior to this title win, but she has jumped a significant 31 places up to world number 84, which secures her direct entry into the Australian Open.
While the likes of Eala, Fernandez and Dart have all been boosted in the rankings, some others have dropped down. This includes Victoria Mboko, who has been out with injury since the grass court season.
This has meant that Mboko has been unable to defend her title at the Hong Kong Open, and therefore has dropped the 250 points she earned last year. Mboko was at a career-high ranking of world number nine earlier this year, but she has now dropped another five places down to world number 20.
Mboko is not the only former top 10 player who has dropped five places this week, with two-time Grand Slam finalist Amanda Anisimova also doing so.
Anisimova was tipped to achieve big things after the best season of her career in 2025, but things have not panned out that way for the American who has been struggling with a wrist injury this year. Anisimova was the world number three at the start of the season, but she is now the world number 22.
