February 7 ------ ALEX Eala is on fire.
The Pinay ace, who will turn 16 this year, has been steadily racking up the wins to ring in 2021, winning her first-ever pro berth just this week before plunging headlong into another tournament. As of writing, she’s about to embark on the third leg of the W15 Manacor in Mallorca, Spain. Tennis has defined the life of this young netter ever since she was a little kid. (The trophies then were much taller than her.) Here’s a running timeline of her career so far.
2013
Eala first started training for tennis at the age of four, before joining her first tournament two years later. But major press coverage for her career appears to have begun in 2013. In April, she tops the 10-under category in the Truflex championship series in Cebu, besting Hong Kong’s Chul Kei-leun. (Future 2021 foe Adithya Karunaratne also participates in that tournament, nabbing the girls’ 12-and-under and 14-and-under trophies.) In December, the eight-year-old flies Stateside to complete her grand slam for the Little Mo international tournaments, emerging as champion of the girls’ 8-and-under category. Older brother Miko is a runner-up in the boys’ 11-and-under.
2015
In Croatia, Alex wins the Dubrovnik Dud Bowl Championship for 11 and under girls. In an interview with The Asian Parent Philippines, her parents Mike and Rizza say that both their children constantly join international competitions. “There are many who will congratulate them when they win. However, if they lose, we want to be there to help them process the emotional dip and to get them through it with new motivation to learn from their match,” they said.
2017
Alex ranks #1 in the Asian Tennis Federation. Together with Indonesia’s Priska Madelyn Nugroho, she is awarded as Doubles Player of the Year by Tennis Europe.
2018
Eala opens the eventful year with a victory in France. Joining the Les Petits As-Le Mondial Lacoste as a wild card participant, Eala defeats the Czech Republic’s Linda Nosková in the finals to become the series’ first wild card champion ever. Impressed, the French Tennis Federation grants her a wild card in the qualifying of the 2018 Roland Garros Junior French Open. There, she loses in the second round against USA’s Peyton Stearns. In July, she also enters as a wild card in an ITF Jakarta U18 tournament. She emerges second runner-up to Priska Nugroho. But in Alicante, Spain, in October, she finally wins her first U18 title, carving her way through the ITF G5 tournament without dropping a single set and besting home bet Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
In her home turf, the eight-seeded Alex routs Canada’s Dasha Plekhanova in a G4 tournament held in Makati in November. In the second edition of the tournament, though, she bows to Indonesia’s Janice Tjen. This was the year that she also joins two Tennis Europe tournaments, as well as the Duren tournament in Germany and the Hasselt tournament in Belgium. She was awarded as 2018 Overseas Player of the Year by Tennis Europe. Crucially, it was her January win in Les Petits As that got the Rafa Nadal Academy to sit up and take notice. Both she and Miko receive a scholarship offer for the prestigious tennis institution in Mallorca, and the siblings enroll in the later part of the year.
2019
This is a year where Eala gives the country a pair of historic firsts. In April, she propels the Philippines to its first berth in the ITF World Junior Tennis for the first time in 26 years after defeating Hong Kong, 2-0, in the quarterfinals of the Asia/Oceania qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur. In September, Alex makes her debut in the main draw of the US Open Junior tournament, becoming the first Filipino to qualify for a Grand Slam tournament since Jeson Patrombon, who accomplished the feat in 1991. She has a smashing debut against Australia’s Annerly Poulos (6-1, 6-2), but her run is nicked in the bud by Thailand’s Mai Napatt Nirundorn in the second round.
Source: spin.ph
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