There’s a flip facet to profitable and writing historical past — the immense expectation to maintain greatness.
Sporting success, although, swings. And Alex Eala, the most important sensation but in Philippine tennis historical past, is aware of this too nicely.
Eala paved her personal path, with no playbook actually to say if a tennis scholarship on the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain would ultimately mould a 13-year-old lady from Manila into a world contender.
Earlier than that gamble, Eala discovered the game from her late grandfather, Roberto “Bobby” Maniego, who performed membership tennis. He mentored Alex, in addition to her brother Miko, of their early years.
“He’s a really large a part of my tennis journey. He was my one and solely coach from after I began till I left for Spain,” Eala mentioned of her grandfather in a current interview with the Tennis Channel.
“He would learn quite a bit. He would learn magazines, he would learn books. He’d watch YouTube, that’s how he sort of discovered find out how to educate us. My brother and I grew up underneath his sort of teaching.”
All that turned out to be the beginning of one thing large.
Now at 20, Eala owns a string of firsts, highlighted by her current feat because the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam match within the Open period, and the primary from the nation to interrupt into the world prime 100, three years after additionally changing into the first Filipino to bag a junior Grand Slam singles title within the US Open.
However in between her many milestones, Eala needed to parry doubts. Whereas many celebrated her success, there have been critics questioning her psychological toughness and expertise.
Eala’s fellow Filipino trailblazers had it the identical. They grind their technique to glory — and Philippine historical past — but their greatness nonetheless comes underneath scrutiny.
Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz already cemented her place in sports activities lore as the primary Filipino to seize an Olympic gold medal in 2021 in the course of the Tokyo Video games.
By 2024, nonetheless, Diaz needed to take care of hints of retirement and options to concentrate on constructing a household (that’s for her to determine, by the way in which), after she did not qualify for the Paris Video games.
“For me, I nonetheless have the hearth,” Diaz not too long ago informed Rappler. “I nonetheless love the game. I’ll at all times love the game. However I do know I can nonetheless do it.”
Athletes reside for this type of ardour, they usually know that’s simply how it’s in sports activities — they win or lose, their careers rise with renewed vitality, or fall with components like age, damage, or a brand new prodigy.
So within the 2025 US Open, whilst some fault Eala for buckling underneath stress in opposition to the lower-ranked Cristina Bucsa of Spain within the second spherical — simply days after her historic and gorgeous upset of world No. 15 Clara Tauson of Denmark within the opener — the younger Filipina is aware of it’s all simply advantageous.
“Often these individuals don’t know quite a bit about tennis and lots of people don’t know what goes on behind the scenes,” Eala mentioned of her critics throughout her final Philippine go to forward of the US Open. “I’m very assured in myself, in my workforce, and in my work.”
Her self-belief is not any totally different from that of pole vaulter EJ Obiena, who continues to soar at world No. 5, appeasing worries after he narrowly fell wanting an Olympic medal and slipped from a career-best world No. 2.
It’s no totally different, too, from that of gymnast Carlos Yulo, who dismissed considerations on his yearlong break, though he actually has nothing extra to show after changing into the Philippines’ first double Olympic gold medalist.
These Filipino history-makers — and actually, solely they — would perceive the pleasure, the fervour, the ache, and the sheer magnitude of at all times carrying your nation’s identify.
“Lots of this pleasure clearly comes from being the primary to do it from my nation,” Eala informed the Tennis Channel.
“I take it with a lot pleasure, to put on my flag. It makes me really feel so particular in a sea of all these Europeans, and all these People, and all of those powerhouse tennis international locations, there’s a woman from the Philippines who made it considerably large.”
The help and the scrutiny, she has additionally discovered to embrace.
Eala basked within the cheers of passionate Filipino followers in New York — “I’ve by no means in my life felt so liked on a tennis courtroom,” she mentioned after the US Open.
However the lefty additionally didn’t appear to thoughts the memes of a viral on-court second that noticed her smiling however spewing a Filipino expletive — “P***** ***a!” in keeping with eagle-eyed Pinoy lip-readers — maybe, out of sheer pleasure and reduction after scoring a troublesome level in opposition to Tauson.
The grind continues as nicely. For Eala, there are extra video games to be performed, and more than likely, extra historical past to be made.
“[For] me, when you consider in your self, then you definitely’re giving your self an opportunity,” she mentioned. “When you don’t consider, then you definitely’ll haven’t any likelihood at succeeding in any respect.”
And to that, Alex Eala swears. – Rappler.com
