LONDON — Wherever Alexandra Eala plays these days, the Philippines seems to show up with her.
It isn’t just Manila. It’s nurses from Birmingham, engineers from Berlin, students from Melbourne, families from Toronto. A flag appears in the stands. Then another. Then chants in Tagalog.
Almost overnight, a player from a country with the world’s 13th-largest population of about 113 million but with almost no professional tennis tradition is carrying one of the globe’s biggest diasporas from tournament to tournament.
“It’s next level,” says former pro and ESPN commentator Mary Joe Fernandez. “She brings a whole new demographic and crowd to watch our sport.”
Alexandra Eala of Philippines celebrates with fans after beating Nikola Bartunkova during the Birmingham Open on June 7 in Birmingham, England.
(Cameron Smith / Getty Images for LTA)
While Wimbledon’s manicured lawns have always been the ultimate stage for tennis history, Eala is writing a script the sport has rarely seen.
At just 21 years old, she arrives at the All England Club as the 29th seed, marking the first time she has been seeded at a Grand Slam after a breakout grass-court season.
She opens her campaign Tuesday against Mexico’s 75th-ranked Renata Zarazua, but the entire tennis world is already buzzing about a potential second-round showdown against returning seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams.
“I’d love a matchup with her, but then I’d also love to get to the second round,” says Eala.
In an interview Sunday afternoon on the eve of the tournament, Eala explained that she’s hardly surprised anymore by the fans who turn up at her matches and seek her out wherever they can.
“Honestly, no place is unexpected anymore,” Eala said with a laugh, noting she was once approached by a family of fans seeking photographs while swimming off the Philippine resort island of Boracay.
Alexandra Eala of Philippines celebrates with fans after beating Nikola Bartunkova during the Birmingham Open on June 7 in Birmingham, England.
(Cameron Smith / Getty Images for LTA)
Eala says there wasn’t one defining moment. Instead, her popularity grew steadily before exploding during her breakthrough run to the Miami Open semifinals as a wild card last spring.
The Eala mania mirrors the same kind of fan frenzy that Brazil’s 19-year-old Joao Fonseca has generated on the men’s tour. Like Eala, his matches are chock-a-block with soccer-style flag waving, face painting and vociferous cheering.
That passion reached a fever pitch at January’s Australian Open. Filipino fans formed unmoving lines, hoping in vain to squeeze into the ludicrously limited capacity of Court 6 just to catch a glimpse of her main draw debut.
“Australia was kind of a bang,” Eala said.
Unlike Brazil, the Philippines has never had a player make a meaningful impact on the professional game, especially on the women’s side. Before Eala’s emergence, the highest-ranked Filipina was Maricris Gentz at No. 284 in 1999.
The closest modern parallels are former singles and doubles No. 1s Li Na of China and Sania Mirza of India, respectively, pioneers who ignited tennis passions in two of the world’s largest countries despite little history of producing elite players.
Her path to this moment makes her rise all the more remarkable.
For the first 10 years of her tennis life, Eala learned the game from her grandfather on a makeshift half-basketball court in Manila. Armed with tennis magazines but no formal training, her grandfather instilled a grueling “tough love” grit in Eala and her older brother, who played college tennis at Penn State. By age 11, her daily routine involved waking up at 4:45 a.m., hitting the gym before school, and training again until the evening.
At 13, after winning the prestigious Les Petits As tournament in France, she made the massive leap to move across the world at the invitation of the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain. There, she absorbed the Spanish mentality of intense point construction, learning to take the ball early and fight for every point — a trait that translates well to all surfaces.
Joan Bosch, Eala’s coach since 2023, said Eala’s game translates naturally to grass because she absorbs and redirects pace so effectively. Just as important, he said, is helping her tune out the growing attention by focusing on small, achievable goals.
“We try to make her understand how important it is to be focused on the tennis,” Bosch said. “Always have one goal, and an achievable goal … She has a good mindset on how to achieve things.”
Fans wave Phillipines flags while cheering on Alexandra Eala during the Australian Open in Melbourne on Jan. 19.
(Dar Yasin / Associated Press)
“I hit a pretty flat ball, so that also helps, and I like to stay low, keep the movements intense,” Eala said of her transition to the turf. Fellow rising American star Iva Jovic, who has beaten her twice this season, agrees: “She takes the ball super early … she’s a dangerous player and great person, too.”
Her recent grass-court results have put the tour on notice. Eala won the WTA 125 Birmingham Open and reached the semifinals of the Berlin Open, securing one of the biggest wins of her career against 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, who is ranked No. 2 and the reigning Australian Open titlist.
At the Bad Homburg Open also this month, she received the ultimate validation: an invitation to play doubles with seven-time singles major winner Venus Williams.
Venus, 46, called Eala “very competitive on the court” and said she hoped they’d get another opportunity to play together.
For Eala, beating Rybakina and sharing the court with Williams reinforced her place among the game’s elite.
Despite the swirling attention, brand collaborations and the hopes of millions riding on her shoulders, Eala remains notably grounded. When asked how she handles the weight of her country’s expectations on top of the demands of the professional tour, Eala holds a perspective beyond her years.
“The tour in general is a place where pressure is thriving,” she explains. “Now, with the attention, there’s some that could argue there’s an added pressure, but I think it only holds the power that you give it and I try to shine a positive light on it.”
What kind of support she’ll garner in London remains to be seen. If Eala reaches the second round, she could face Serena, whose return to Wimbledon has dominated opening-week conversation.
Serena will surely have plenty of support of her own. But wherever Eala plays now, another corner of the world seems to become home court.
