Invest for victory

A 19-year-old Filipina enthralled the nation last week as she slew three international giants in a row at the Miami Open, allowing her to become part of the semis of a major international tennis tournament. Alex Eala’s amazing wins and making it to the semifinals were a number of firsts for any Filipina player. Her passion, commitment, and hard work brought her very close to every tennis player’s ultimate dream. Congratulations, Alex! We are all proud of you and we are all convinced that you are all set to accomplish even bigger things in global tennis!

While I have never really been into tennis, a continuing project of Phinma’s chair emeritus Oscar Hilado of making possible internationally recognized junior tennis tournaments in the Philippines pulled me into the sport. Oscar lamented the lack of publicity and awareness about tennis in the country and asked me in 2018 to help get more coverage of the junior tennis tournaments he has been helping to organize since the early 2000s. He wanted the youth and their parents to take more interest in tennis, believing that the country has vast potential to make it big in the global arena.

The three tournaments I helped in 2018, 2019, and 2024, after the annual tournaments got stalled by COVID-19 as well as some lapses that shut out the country from the global tournaments, were not easy to promote given our limited PR budgets. We used social media and tapped friends in media. We had to contend with the reality of shrinking broadsheet space, which tended to prioritize basketball, volleyball, and sponsor preferences. Tennis was always at the end of the list. But we did what we could and got a bit more coverage each year.

I told Oscar that once various investments in our young players start paying off and when they win big internationally, publicity will multiply, awareness will grow, and young people and parents will get inspired. Last week, we saw all of that unfold, and methinks the next Phinma-ITF junior tournaments will finally get the coverage they deserve. Not too long ago, Alex played and did very well in a Phinma-ITF tournament.

And why is this important? Simply put, sports have always been and continue to offer alternative paths to better lives. At the same time, our country seems to have a huge pool of potential athletes like it does with singing. Unlike singing though, sports require more investment that should begin in the early years. A superstar like Alex was first exposed to tennis when she was 4 years old, watching her older brother learn to play. Hence, family surely plays a very important role. School becomes the next critical factor and then subsequently, the private sector, and though often political, government support will have to kick in for the crucial leveling up that will demand even more resources.

Make no mistake, as I said early on, the athlete will need to give her all with consistency and passion. I don’t believe, though, that we have a dearth of such young people. There are many, but resources in our public schools and the investments in sports events are sorely wanting. In many ways, this is not surprising as the basics don’t even get enough funds: teacher pay, textbooks, classrooms, and nutrition and feeding. Once upon a time, we had the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports. It seemed a priority then. Now it is just Department of Education.

What Oscar, through the Phinma Foundation and his Mariposa Foundation, has been doing and will keep doing for tennis is immensely valuable. Working with the Philippine Tennis Academy and coordinating with the Philippine Tennis Association, he has helped make one of two annual International Tennis Federation recognize junior tournaments that give our promising local tennis talents the opportunity to compete with other rising international players and accumulate needed points based on their advancement and wins. Proving their potential in local tournaments gives our young players a platform to be identified, recognized, and earn much-needed support of individuals and groups, including companies, willing to invest in their careers.

When another Filipino sports superstar, Hidilyn Diaz, won the gold in the Olympics, she chose to pursue an advocacy to encourage support for our athletes early on and not only when they clinch the gold. She laments that the journey is so difficult with resources always being inadequate that many are unable to continue. Yet, when the gold is attained, we realize that there could have been more resources from the government and the private sector that could have supported more athletes from the get-go. It will be good to note here that even before winning the US Open junior women’s singles tournament in 2022, Alex was already being supported by Globe and Bank of the Philippine Islands.

The message is simply to invest in our young athletes. Don’t just reward them and ride on their popularity once they make it to the top. They deserve better!