Alex Eala soared to the top of the Southeast Asian region rankings following her impressive showing in Spain.

Eala, who came close to winning the W60 Madrid tennis title, rose 73 places to improve to No. 340 in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings.

She ranked ahead of Indonesia's Aldila Sutjiadi, who is ranked at No. 401.

The rankings reflected Eala's performance at W60 Madrid where she beat a number of higher-ranked opponents before falling against eventual champion Marina Bassols Ribera.

Eala first ousted qualifier Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria in the first round (6-4, 6-4), No. 11 seed Daniela Seguel of Chile in the second round (6-1, 6-2), and No. 7 seed Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers of Spain in the third round (0-6, 6-2, 7-5).

The three-time Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist then went on to upset more seeds: No. 3 seed Jaimee Fourlis of Australia in the quarterfinals (6-1, 6-4) and No. 16 seed Katherine Sebov of Canada in the semifinals (6-2, 6-1).

The 17-year-old will be seeking another title after bagging the W25 Chiang Rai last April, and the W15 Manacor in 2021.