Tag: Alex Eala

Alex Eala was one point from the ASB Classic final, one swing from crossing another threshold. Instead, the Auckland night tilted the other way, and the semifinal of the season’s first WTA 250 turned into a bruising lesson in fine margins.

Filipina tennis star Alexandra Eala barely allowed the clock to catch its breath at the ASB Classic on Thursday, needing just 63 minutes to dismantle Croatia’s Petra Marcinko 6-0, 6-2 and stride into the quarterfinals of the WTA 250 event, her first of the 2026 season.

Under the merciless noon sun of Bangkok, Alex Eala didn’t just play tennis—she settled unfinished business 26 years in the making. The 20-year-old Filipino star dismantled Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew, 6–1, 6–2, to end the Philippines’ long gold-medal drought in women’s singles at the Southeast Asian Games.

Alex Eala is one win from rewriting her SEA Games story—and she made sure everyone watching knew it.

Barely five years ago, Alex Eala was a 15-year-old prodigy from the Rafael Nadal Academy, armed with a booming forehand and a fire that refused to dim. Today, she’s cracked the Top 50 — the highest ranking ever achieved by a Filipino tennis player.