Alex Eala and the Philippines' Long Road Back to Tennis Glory

A little over a year ago, Alex Eala was ranked 140th in the world and had never qualified to the main draw of any Grand Slam event. 

 Yesterday, she played in the 4th round of of the Wimbledon Championships, dropping a gripping three-setter to 2024 finalist and former world no. 4 Jasmine Paolini of Italy. This is the farthest that a Filipino player, male or female, has reached in singles in what is largely considered the most prestigious Grand Slam event. Eala made history even before the tournament started. She became the first ever Filipino to be seeded in singles in the history of Wimbledon. 

 Now ranked 32nd in the world, Eala’s rise to global prominence has also brought attention to tennis among Filipinos whose devotion to sports mostly revolves around basketball, volleyball, and boxing. 

Legends Before the Open Era

The Philippines has actually produced a number of outstanding tennis players bursting into the scene at different times—the first one before 1968 which is referred to as the Amateur Era, and the second occurring after 1968 until the present, known as the Open era when the sport discarded the distinction between amateur and professional players. 

The glory years of Philippine tennis, some would say, happened pre-1968 when Felicisimo Ampon and Raymundo Deyro showed they could go toe-to-toe with the best players in the world. 

Known as the Mighty Mite because of his diminutive stature at just 5’3", Ampon is largely considered the greatest player the country has ever produced. Ampon reached the third round of Wimbledon three times and the fourth round of the US Open four times. Coming in as the 12th seed in the 1952 French Open, Ampon made the quarterfinals where he fell to former world no. 1 and five-time Grand Slam champion Francis Sedgman of Australia. The following year, the 11th seeded Ampon again reached the quarterfinals of the French Open but was beaten by a then 18-year-old Ken Rosewall who went on to win the title. Rosewall would eventually become an eight-time Grand Slam champion and one of the greatest players of all time. 

Deyro was seeded 15th during the 1953 French Open where he went as far as the fourth round, matching the best Grand Slam result of his career in the same event two years prior. He also twice gained third round spots in both the US Open and Wimbledon. 

Two other Filipinos made multiple appearances in the Grand Slams during the same period. Cesar Carmona played in the third round of Wimbledon in 1950. He also saw second-round action twice in the French Open and once in the US Open. Willie Hernandez, on the other hand, made the second round of the Australian Open, the US Open, and Wimbledon. 

Former Philippine no. 1 Johnny Jose, was 17 when he joined the 1955 US Open. He was eliminated in the opening round. Jose is the last Filipino to win gold in the Asian Games, besting US Open men’s doubles champion Atsushi Miyagi of Japan in the men’s singles finals of the 1962 Jakarta Asiad. 

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Until the Next Star Emerged

When tennis transitioned to the Open era, the successes of Filipinos on the global stage became few and far between. 

Before Eala, the best results attained by Filipinos post-1968 happened in the junior ranks and in men’s doubles. 

In the 1980s, Manny Tolentino was for a brief period the no. 1 junior player in the world. Felix Barrientos became the first Filipino to reach the semifinals of a junior Grand Slam when he made the final four of the 1985 Wimbledon boys singles. Jennifer Saberon cracked the top 20 in the world in the girls juniors rankings and also attained a semifinal finish in the 1986 Wimbledon girls doubles. 

Two decades later, Francis Casey Alcantara and Jeson Patrombon emerged as the country’s next tennis stars. Alcantara copped the 2009 Australian Open boys doubles championship while Jeson Patrombom became the ninth best junior player in the world after reaching the quarterfinals of the 2011 Australian Open boys singles. 

In men’s doubles, Beeyong Sison became the first Filipino in the Open era to appear in all four Grand Slam events. His career highlight was his quarterfinal showing in the 1981 French Open. He also has a Wimbledon third round and US Open third round to show for. 

Perhaps the most accomplished Filipino in the Open era is Treat Huey. During the men’s doubles semifinals of the 2016 Wimbledon Championships, he and partner Max Mirnyi of Belarus dropped a heartbreaking five-setter to the top two doubles players in the world, Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut of France who went on to bag the title. Treat and Mirnyi also got to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the third round of the French Open that same year, enabling them to qualify for the 2016 ATP World Tour Finals, the money-rich year-end event exclusively for the top eight doubles pairs in the world. 

Huey retired in 2023 with 8 ATP doubles titles and a career-high doubles ranking of 18th in the world. 

But in singles, the best showing by a Filipino was when Barrientos upset former Wimbledon finalist Kevin Curren of South Africa to advance to the quarterfinals of the ATP Hong Kong Open in 1991. Former world no. 1 John McEnroe and 1989 French Open champion Michael Chang and future Grand Slam winners Michael Stich of Germany and Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands also played in that year’s Hong Kong Open.  

Some might point to Cecil Mamiit, who had gone to the second round of three Grand Slams, as the best Filipino player in the Open era. This is both right and wrong. Mamiit was 72nd in the world singles ranking in 1999 after making the finals of the ATP Sybase Open in California. Mamiit, however, still represented the United States when he was at the peak of his pro career. He only switched federations and began representing the Philippines in 2005 when he was no longer a fixture in Grand Slam events. 

Barrientos, at 180, and Eddie Cruz at 178 were the highest ranked Filipinos in singles in the Open era until Eala’s ascension this year to elite levels. 

In the Open era, all of Eala’s accomplishments are historic for the simple reason that these are unprecedented and have never been done before. At just 21 years old, Eala is bound to scale more heights which previously seemed improbable for the Filipino tennis player. She has single-handedly ushered in a new era that could propel the Philippines back on the tennis map.