The 21-year-old is already the most successful Filipino tennis player in history, and her popularity among flag-waving fans has been evident all week.
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Alex Eala has never won a title on the women’s tennis tour. Until this week, she had made it to the final of a WTA event just once, a loss last June at the 250-level Eastbourne Open. She’s made it past the first round at any of the four Grand Slams — the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open — only twice.
Eala, 21, is undoubtedly a rising star, albeit one still in the infancy of her career on the women’s tour. Her popularity, though, already knows few limits, and has particularly exploded this year. Eala most recently made it to the fourth round at Wimbledon in July after beating current world No. 8 and former No. 1 Iga Swiatek, the biggest win of her career so far.
After that win, before Eala arrived in Washington for this week’s DC Open, inquiries about Eala with the tournament’s ticket office grew exponentially.
“Over the last month, the ticketing team says at least 80 percent, if not more, of the requests in this tournament are about, ‘When is Alex Eala playing?’” tournament chair Mark Ein said Tuesday. “Honestly, I think it’s more, and they just didn’t want to say it was more, but they’re like, ‘[It’s] virtually all.’ It’s not an exaggeration. That’s actually what they tell me.
“When you look at the amazing players here and how many great stars there are, it says something about Alex’s following.”
Eala grew up in the Philippines, a country where basketball and boxing reign supreme and there are few proper tennis courts. When Eala was 13, she moved to Spain to attend the Rafa Nadal Academy and further her tennis training. Swiatek, in fact, gave Eala her diploma when she graduated from the academy in 2023.
At just 21, Eala is already the most successful Filipino tennis player in history. She doesn’t get to go back home much — the tennis calendar requires a year-round commitment, with only occasional short breaks — but a trip back to the Philippines after Wimbledon was “eye-opening,” Eala said Sunday at the DC Open’s media day.
“Every time I go home, it’s super meaningful,” Eala said. “The fact that I’m able to really interact with the people who I know support me through my journey, it really meant a lot.”
Eala’s popularity has been evident on the grounds of the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center throughout the week, from the many fans waving Filipino flags in the stands of her matches to the dozens who squeezed into a narrow area for a glimpse at Eala on the practice courts.
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“It’s definitely not a burden. I would describe it more as a privilege, and I’m very privileged to be able to carry my flag and to represent everything that comes with that,” Eala said Sunday.
“I’m very grateful to everybody who comes out to see me. I think it’s great for them to also experience, because I know a lot of them have never been to tennis events. … I think that it’s a beautiful thing.”
Eala’s path to the finals at the DC Open was, on paper, far from straightforward, but Eala handled each match with aplomb. She faced Qinwen Zhang in the first round and needed three sets to advance, and in her next three matches, Eala was in control most of the way.
She topped 2025 DC Open champion Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) in the round of 16, then beat No. 10 Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals Friday.
In Saturday’s semifinal against Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion currently ranked 13th, Eala never appeared rattled. She broke Osaka’s serve four times, while only allowing herself to be broken once, and cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 win. Eala will face world No. 3 Jessica Pegula in Sunday’s final.
On match point, after Osaka’s return sailed well beyond the baseline and Eala knew it was over, she kept her face neutral as she walked to the net, greeted Osaka and shook hands with the chair umpire.
Then, professional pleasantries completed, she dropped her head into her hands and her eyes appeared to fill with tears. The jubilant crowd — one member of which was sporting heart-shaped earrings emblazoned with the flag of the Philippines — rose and cheered, while Eala looked around and took it all in.
“Going into this tournament, I looked at the list, and it was, like, jam-packed,” Eala said. “It was big player after big player after big player. So to be in the final really means a lot to me. I think I am really happy with how I performed and how I’ve conducted myself on court against these caliber of players. So I really hope to keep the momentum moving, not just at this tournament, but for the rest of the hard-court swing.”
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