If Alex Eala is able to improve her serve, she has the potential to break into the top 32 of the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, according to Tennis Channel commentator Gill Gross.
Gross told Tennis365 that he is already impressed at how 21-year-old Eala was able to face the best players in the world despite having a disadvantage on her serve.
The Rafael Nadal Academy graduate is set to face world No. 33 Donna Vekic of Croatia on Wednesday in the Round of 32 of the Berlin Tennis Open in Germany.
“She’s sustaining herself comfortably inside the top 50, and that’s even without the Cinderella run in Miami last year that a lot of people thought might be a one-off. She’s proven over the course of the next 52 weeks thereafter that she is a top 50 player, yet she has one of the biggest weaknesses in the top 50,” Gross said.
“I see that as a positive because if she can just make some gains on her serve so far that she gets it to just average or even slightly below average, that’s going to be an opportunity for her to get even better.”
“The fact that she’s breaking serve as much as she does shows she’s beating practically everybody in neutral rallies. The problem is she’s having to play so much defense and she’s having to work so hard because she doesn’t get anything out of her serve at this stage.”
