When Alex Eala Won the 2022 US Open Junior Championships

Alex Eala entered this year’s US Open as the 17th seed in women’s singles, bearing hopes of going on a deep run that would further cement her stature as among the global superstars of the sport of tennis. 

But Eala’s love affair with the hallowed grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center began years before, specifically in the 2019 US Open Juniors Championship. As a 14-year-old, she won two qualifying matches to make her first ever junior Grand Slam main draw. She was victorious in her first-round match but fell in the second round.  

The next US Open Juniors happened in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic sidelined the previous year’s edition. 

Already 16, Eala was tabbed the tournament’s second seed, just behind top seed and world junior No. 1 Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva of Andorra and ahead of third seed Diana Shnaider of Russia.  

Eala was coming off a title run in the French Open juniors where she partnered with Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva to bag the girls doubles championship. It was Eala’s second girls doubles Grand Slam title after claiming the 2020 Australian Open juniors with Indonesian partner Priska Nugroho.  

After drawing a first-round bye, she picked up two straight wins before suffering a surprising defeat to an unseeded Swiss in the quarterfinals.  

Everything finally came together for the budding Filipina tennis star the following year.  

A 17-year-old Eala arrived in Flushing Meadows in New York in 2022 as the tenth seed, but she came with two ITF pro titles in her trophy case and with the knowledge that she was armed with the tools and experience to beat anyone in the draw. 

She, however, still had to contend with a roster brimming with talent that were future headliners in the pro tour.  

Four of that year’s entries are now higher than Eala in the WTA rankings. These were then 15-year-old and current world No. 5 Mirra Andreeva of Russia who has since gone on to win the 2025 French Open, then 14-year-old and current world No. 14 Iva Jovic of the United States, then 16-year-old and current world No. 15 Victoria Mboko of Canada, and then 18-year-old and current world No. 16 Shnaider. 

Other notable names in the entry list were Thailand’s top player and world No. 76 Lanlana Tararudee, Solana Sierra who is now the Argentine No. 1, and world No. 91, former world No. 78 Ella Seidel of Germany, and current world No. 100 Taylah Preston of Australia. 

Eala breezed through the first two rounds, dropping a total of just eight games in back-to-back straight set victories. Preston offered a bit of resistance in the third round, but Eala still managed to fend off the Aussie, 6-2, 7-6(1).  

The quarterfinals presented an intriguing challenge as Eala faced off against her doubles partner Andreeva. The pair blasted Jovic and fellow American Shannon Lam in the girls doubles opening round but withdrew in the second round to prepare for their singles encounter. Andreeva was fresh off a three-set stunner in the third round when she eliminated No. 1 seed Sofia Costoulas of Belgium. But the Russian phenom proved no match against Eala who prevailed, 6-4, 6-0, after an hour and ten minutes. 

Mboko stood in the way of a finals slot, and Eala would not be denied. She took out the top Canadian prospect, 6-1, 7-6 (5). In the process, she became the first ever Filipino to reach the singles finals of a junior Grand Slam, eclipsing the Wimbledon boys singles semifinal achievement of the legendary Felix Barrientos in 1985, 

But Eala was expected to go through rough seas in the finals against the No.1 ranked junior player in the world, Lucie Havlickova of the Czech Republic. Havlickova was sensational in the French Open juniors that year, emerging champion in both singles and doubles. She also copped the US Open girls doubles title in tandem with Diana Shnaider. 

All that hardly mattered to Eala who turned what was expected to be a closely-fought finals into a one-sided affair. Eala dominated the 17-year-old Czech in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, to bring home to Manila the US Open girls singles championship trophy.  

Eala did not drop a set on her way to becoming the US Open junior champion. She made further history by becoming the first Filipino to win a junior Grand Slam singles title.  

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