What Alex Eala's US Open Main Draw Debut Win Means for Filipino Sports
Twenty-year-old Quezon City-born tennis prodigy Alex Eala continues her meteoric rise in the sport as she becomes the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam singles tournament main draw match in the US Open in a come-from-behind victory against world No. 14 Clara Tauson.
Eala dazzled in her first career win as she dug her way out of a 1-5 third-set deficit and bested Denmark’s Tauson, 6-3, 2-6, 7(13)- 6 (11). She has now advanced to the second round of one of the oldest tennis grand slam championship tournaments in the world.
The Dane had put Eala on her heels with 12 aces and a 5-1 lead in the third set, which did not deter the Filipina who soldiered on and won four straight games to secure the historic win.
Eala, who is ranked 75th in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), is red hot this year as she got a career-high world ranking of No. 56 last June 30.
A product of the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy, Eala is set to face the winner of the first-round match between world No. 35 Cristina Bucsa from Spain and American world No. 374 Claire Liu.
“To be Filipino is something I take so much pride in,” the rising star said after the match. “I don’t have a home tournament, so to be able to have this community here at the US Open, I’m so grateful they made me feel like I’m home.”
“I’m always in the mood for more history, this match is one for the books for me,” she added.
Alex Eala celebrating after her historic win
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Her stunning year reached fever pitch in March at the 2025 Miami Open with a Cinderella-run that involved her collecting victories over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, the reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys, and the world No. 2 Iga Swiatek. The awe-inspiring run came to a halt after she lost to world No. 4 Jessica Pegula.
Eala started out as the world No. 140 before the tournament; she eventually went up to No. 75 thanks to her brilliant run.
Earlier this year, the Filipina tennis wunderkind suffered two first round-exits to Colombian Emiliana Arango in the French Open and to former world No. 1 Barbora Krejcikova in Wimbledon.
In 2022, Eala became the first Filipino tennis player to nab a junior US Open Grand Slam singles championship and earned a combined International Tennis Federation ranking of No. 2.
A look back at Filipino tennis greats
The world No. 30 in Women's Tennis is another Leylah Fernandez also has Filipino roots, with her mother being Filipina-Canadian. Fernandez has embraced her roots but represents Canada in profesisonal tennis,
If we were to go all the way back to Filipinos that put the country on the map of the sport of Tennis, we have Felicisimo Ampon to thank, the first Filipino to play at Wimbledon in 1948. He was also a quarter finalist at the French Chapionships in 1952 to 1953.
Another early Filipino tennis ace was Raymundo Deryo, who reachec the fourth round of the French Open, third rounds of Wimbledon and in the US Open twice in the 1940s.
At the 2009 Australian Open boys doubles champoionship 2009, Francis Casey Alcantara came out on top nabbing gold.
Decades before Alex Eala, other women's singles standout include Maricris Fernandez-Gentz peaked 284th in the world in 1999, Fracnesca La'O ranked 386th in 1994, and more recently Filipina-German Katharina Lehnert was at 389th in 2013.
