Tennis Ace Alex Eala, Our National Flower
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Alexandra Eala at the U.S. Open in 2024 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
We can’t be blamed. We’re in a national tizzy because of Alex who has become the highest-ranked Filipino player in Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) history–No. 56-- surpassing previously highest ranked Pinay player Maricris Fernandez-Gentz, ranked 284 in singles and 601 in doubles.
Eala has strung up a series of incredible milestones: reaching the Top 100 in the WTA rankings, beating World’s No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the Miami Open quarterfinals, among other opponents; making it into her first WTA tour final at Eastbourne playing against Australia’s Maya Joint for the title. And then playing in Wimbledon too, going up against defending champion Barbora Krejcikova of Czechoslovakia. We’re waving the Philippine flag sky-high with this girl!
Although Alex failed to conquer Krejcikova in the Wimbledon grass, the champ did have kind and uplifting words for our young tennis heroine.
"I would like start with giving the credit to Alex,” she said in her postgame statement. “(The way) she played in the first set, she was smashing the ball and she was cleaning the lines and all that…Wow, wow, it's the next generation coming. She's gonna come up and she's gonna be really good in a couple of years. So first of all, big credit, big credit to her."
We have no doubt Alex Eala will make us Filipinos prouder than we already are in world tennis. The handwriting is on the wall. There’s nowhere to go for Alex but up.
“One thing that Alex has to improve on is her consistency. As earlier mentioned, she tends to have wild swings in her game from set to set. She also has to improve her service game as well as her net game, where she tends to commit errors in her drop shots. But there’s no way to go for Alex than up, and her countrymen are going to be behind her not only because of her potent game, but also because of her character,” said our good friend, Celtics teammate and revered sports journalism colleague Bert Ramirez in a Facebook post.
Alex Eala, runner-up at 2025 Eastbourne Open (Source: Alex Eala/Instagram)
Bert traced the way Alex skyrocketed to fame and into our hearts in just four months. “Eala, still a teenager then (she turned 20 last May 23), leaped into the public consciousness back in March by beating three former Grand Slam champions–Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys, and Iga Swiatek–in the Miami Masters 1000. And last week, she won six matches, including qualifying contests, in her historic march to the final in Eastbourne before losing to Joint, moving to championship point four times before dropping a 12-10 third-set tiebreak.”
But Alex is not out of Wimbledon just yet. She will still play in the doubles’ division where she is teamed up with 23-year old German pro player Eva Lys. They will face the team of Serbia’s Olga Danilovic and Russia’s Anastasia Potapova.
Nike did something very touching and inspiring for Alex, a Nike athlete, before she took on Wimbledon. She was gifted with a hair tie adorned with a single, oversized sampaguita, the Philippines’ national flower, placed in a special decorative box. The hair tie rested on a surface resembling a grass tennis court, and the box also contained this message:
“The sampaguita–the flower of my country. A reminder of where I came from–and everything that brought me here.”
Nike’s sampaguita hair tie gift to Alex (Source Alex Eala’s Instagram)
“The sampaguita: delicate, radiant, resilient, is more than the Philippines’ national flower. It’s strength. It’s belief. It’s home. And today, you carry it with you. Every dream begins as a seed. “Kung may tinanim, may aanihin.” And what you plant, you’ll one day reap. Over the last decade, you’ve planted it all–the hours, the grind, the quiet resolve. And now, here you are, a Filipina on the grass courts of history. Not just playing for herself, but carrying a nation in full bloom. All yours. Team Nike.”
Alex wearing the sampaguita hair tie (Source Alex Eala’s Instagram)
Alex did come out on that Wimbledon court with the Sampaguita hair tie holding her hair.
On her Instagram post (alex.eala) she said: “The sampaguita–the flower of my country. A reminder of where I came from–and everything that brought me here. Ang sampaguita ay paalala ng aking pinanggalingan at kulturang lagi kong dala-dala (The sampaguita is a reminder of my roots and the culture that’s always with me). Now, thanks to @nike, I get to bring all of that with me onto Wimbledon Centre Court – bitbit ko sa bawat galaw. Kung may tinanim, may aanihin (It’s with every move I make. If it’s sown, it will be harvested).”
Nike’s “History in Full Bloom” ad (Source: Manila Bulletin)
Padayon, Alex! On to the next.
This is a version of the author’s column in Business Mirror, July 2, 2025.
