No doubt Alex is biggest PH sports figure of the year
Alex Eala stood at the forefront of an eventful Philippine sports scene in the year about to end, pushing the country to greater heights with a breakout WTA season that redefined her rise in world tennis.
The 20-year-old charmer delivered on every stage, from the pro US tour to the Grand Slams, before capping it with a golden run in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand recently.
“To end the year on this high is such an amazing thing. I wouldn’t have thought it would happen at the start of the year,” said Eala after her historic Games stint that started as the country’s flag bearer and ended with a gold medal in the women’s singles. She also had a pair of bronze medals from the women’s team and mixed doubles.
The Miami Open was Eala’s launching pad as she entered the WTA 1000 event as a wild card who shocked the world by defeating three Grand Slam champions—a first for any Filipino and any wild card entry in the tournament’s history.
She stunned Jelena Ostapenko, took down Madison Keys and produced her biggest upset yet by eliminating one of the best netters in the globe in Iga Swiatek.
Eala’s dream run ended in the semifinals, where she pushed eventual runner-up Jessica Pegula before falling, 6-7 (3), 7-5, 3-6.
The fight in Eala and the way she always broke down after every win endeared her to the world and reignited the passion in the sport the country had lost when Filipinos faltered on the international front.
She would then barge into the top 75, from No. 147 at the start of the year, after Miami to gain outright berths in Grand Slam events, where she made her debut in the French Open against Colombia’s Emiliana Arango but fell short of a comeback in three sets.
She also made her appearance at Wimbledon and impressed defending champion Barbora Krejcikova despite yielding a 6-3, 2-6, 1-6 result.
In August, Eala returned to familiar ground at the US Open, where she once won the girls’ singles title. This time, she made history again by becoming the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam main draw match at Flushing Meadows after outlasting Denmark’s Clara Tauson, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (11), before bowing out to Spain’s Cristina Bucsa, 4-6, 3-6, in the second round.
Eala also won her first-ever WTA title in the Guadalajara 125 Open, beating Panna Udvardy, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, last September. She also had a runner-up finish in the Eastbourne Open (WTA 250), falling short to Maya Joint, 4-6, 6-1, 6 (10)-7.
Windfall that went with it
The Filipino athlete suffered from a series of first-round exits in her final WTA games of the season in Asia, but she still achieved a career-high ranking of No.50 and pocketed $907, 777 (around P52.65 million) in prize money with a 40–26 win-loss record.
Eala capped the year in the PH’s three stars and the sun as she ended a 26-year gold medal drought for the Philippines in women’s tennis singles in the SEAG.
A 6-1, 6-2 win over Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew had Eala joining Pia Tamayo (1981) and Maricris Fernandez (1999) as the only Filipino women to win SEAG golds.
With a historic year behind her, Eala now turns her attention to the Australian Open in January, aiming to build on a season that pushed Philippine tennis further than it has ever gone.
A return appearance in the WTA 125 Manila Open, which takes place from January 26 to 31, depends on her Australian Open campaign.
