The first Filipina to win a WTA Tour championship is Alexandra "Alex" Eala. Let's get to know the newest rising talent in tennis.
Alex is a 21-year-old professional tennis player from the Philippines who is well-known for his forceful, left-handed baseline game. Born in Quezon City, Philippines, on May 23, 2005, she is the top-ranked Filipino in WTA history. She trains on Mallorca, Spain. Her granddad trained her daily with her brother from the age of three and a half until she was thirteen. When 12-year-old Eala won the prestigious Les Petits As junior event in France in 2018, the Rafa Nadal Academy took notice.
At the age of 13, she relocated to Spain to train full-time under coach Joan Bosch and occasionally Toni Nadal at the Rafa Nadal Academy. She even used the same practice court as Rafael Nadal in late 2025.
US Open junior title (2022): First Filipino to win a Grand Slam junior title.
Miami Open breakthrough (2025): As a wildcard ranked outside the Top 100, she beat Grand Slam champions Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys, plus Iga Świątek, to reach the semifinals — the first Filipino to do so at a WTA 1000 event.
Wimbledon run (2026): Beat defending champion Świątek en route to the fourth round, becoming the first Filipina in the Open Era to reach Wimbledon's second week.
Washington Open title (2026): Beat four seeded players, including World No. 3 Jessica Pegula in the final, to claim her first WTA Tour title this August.
The Washington win pushed Alex to a career-high World No. 20. She's now beaten nine different Top 10 opponents, seven of them in 2026 alone.
Her Washington Open title is a first for Philippine tennis — no Filipino, man or woman, had ever won a WTA event before her. It's made her a genuine national sensation back home. Alex heads straight into the WTA 1000 Canadian Open in Toronto, seeded 25th. From there, she turns her focus to the US Open later this month — the tournament where she won her junior title back in 2022.