Alex Eala's Breakthrough Title Win: 'Kapag Lumago, Hindi Na Hihinto'

Success and fame are often followed by the uninvited keyboard warriors and bashers who seem to take pleasure in nitpicking to invalidate or, at the very least, demean a person’s body of work.

Alex Eala’s meteoric rise to global stardom, though celebrated by the majority, has not been spared from scrutiny by a small but loud percentage of netizens who have repeatedly downplayed her accomplishments. A lot of the critics probably did not even know anything about tennis a year ago, but simply phonied their way into the realm of social media to give their uninformed judgment disguised as expert opinions. 

Too much hype, they claim. Can’t win on the big stage. Not even world-class, they hollered.

Never mind that she has risen to the top 30 in the world rankings from 140 just a little over a year ago. Never mind that she has reached heights no other Filipino has scaled before. 

She had not won anything of significance, said they, and that was the opening that the naysayers used to keep questioning her legitimacy. 

The potential and natural ability had been there since she was young. Genuine fans of the sport and the Rafa Nadal Academy recognized it early on. Her desire to win had always been immense. 

All the mechanisms from the hard work she put in began to really click during the grasscourt season in June and July. A WTA 125 title in Birmingham. A semifinal finish in the Berlin Open where she defeated in succession Donna Vekic of Croatia, who just the week prior won the HSBC Championships, world no. 2 and Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, and world no. 8 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. A fourth-round finish at Wimbledon, where she became the first-ever Filipino to be seeded in singles. 

All those built up to this past week, where things finally fell into place for the 21-year-old Filipina tennis ace. Her game, which has constantly been developing and evolving, finally equipped her with the skills she needed to match her will. The result was nothing short of spectacular,

She beat a Murderer’s Row of talent on her way to making the championship round of the Mubadala Washington Open. Paris Olympic gold medalist and former world no. 3 Zheng Qinwen of China in the opening round. Defending champion and 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez of Canada in the Round of 16. Svitolina again in the quarterfinals. Former world no. 1 and 4-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka of Japan in the semifinals.

Top seed Jessica Pegula of the United States was all that stood between Eala and the big prize. The American world no. 3 took the opening set in the finals but was outclassed by Eala when play resumed after a one-day rain delay. The unseeded Eala triumphed in three sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, to claim the first WTA tour-level title of her young career.

The victory holds significance on so many levels, both domestically and internationally.

As the trailblazer in Philippine tennis, pretty much anything that Eala accomplishes is unprecedented. 

She is the first Filipino to ever win a singles title in the main tour of the professional circuit. She is the second Filipino to lift the championship trophy in the Washington Open after Treat Huey won the men’s doubles title of the same tournament in 2012.

But her achievement goes beyond Philippine shores. 

Eala also made history by becoming the first Southeast Asian to win a WTA 500 event. Regional legends Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia, who has six WTA titles, and Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, who owns four WTA titles, won Tier III and IV events, the equivalent of today’s WTA 250. Indonesia’s Janice Tjen was the champion last year of the WTA 250 Chennai Open.

Now 20th in the live rankings, Eala is now the second-highest-ranked Southeast Asian female player in history. Basuki and Tanasugarn are tied for the highest ever ranking, with both peaking at 18th in the world. 

In beating Pegula, Eala extended her streak against top 10 players to five straight wins. Only a few have winning records when going up against the world’s best players. Among all active players, Eala owns the distinction of having the highest winning percentage against players ranked in the top 10 at the time she faced them. She has registered 9 wins against just 4 losses against top 10 players, or a winning percentage of 69 percent. She has gotten back at all four players who have defeated her. 

With the pressure and weight of expectations of winning her first title now out of the way, one can only imagine how much further Eala can still go. All she needed was to get over the hump to showcase what she was capable of, in the process probably shutting down, albeit perhaps temporarily, even the harshest of critics. The possibilities appear limitless now that Eala is armed with the confidence of a champion to complement her evident world-class talent and an insatiable hunger to succeed.

ALSO READ:

What Alex Eala's US Open Main Draw Debut Win Means for Filipino Sports

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