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TORONTO, ONTARIO – AUGUST 07: Alexandra Eala of the Philippines celebrates against Caty McNally of the United States during day six of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers at Sobeys Stadium on August 07, 2026 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Rising Filipino tennis star Alex Eala<\/a> is currently ranked No. 18 in the world.<\/p>\n Eala is coming off a third-round exit at the 2026 US Open<\/a>, losing to Iva Jovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 21-year-old ace is set to participate in the 2026 Singapore Tennis Open next week before heading to Japan to represent the Philippines in the 2026 Asian Games.<\/p>\n Eala\u2019s Major Boost Ahead of Asian Games<\/p>\n \n Alex Eala is the highest-ranked player entering the 2026 Asian Games.<\/p>\n She\u2019s the likely favorite to take home the gold medal, though she would have to face some tough competition along the way, like former World No. 4 Zheng Qinwen<\/a> and current World No. 41 Wang Xinyu of China.<\/p>\n However, Zheng and Wang have reportedly withdrawn from the Asian Games and won\u2019t be competing in Japan, as per Tennis World USA<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear why Zheng and Wang are not playing for China, though the 2026 China Open, a mandatory WTA event, is on the same schedule as the Asian Games.<\/p>\n Zheng is also the reigning Asian Games gold medalist, so there will be a new champion. She defeated Eala in the semifinals of the 2022 Asian Games. She\u2019s also the reigning Olympic gold medalist.<\/p>\n Why is Alex Eala Playing in the Asian Games?<\/p>\n \n While a couple of her peers are skipping the Asian Games, Alex Eala wanted to represent the Philippines.<\/p>\n Eala explained to reporters<\/a> after her US Open exit last week why she decided to play for her country.<\/p>\n \u201cI love playing and competing with the Philippines team and in the SEA, the Asian Games, I\u2019ve also done, I think it\u2019s a really fun environment, I love being with the team,\u201d Eala said via\u00a0Tennis Head<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially this last SEA Games in December, I had such a great time and I think they\u2019re really memories that will stick with me,\u201d she added. \u201cYou know, the Asian Games happens once every four years and yeah, I just found myself drawn to compete in that over other stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n To play in the Asian Games, Eala will not be participating in the 2026 China Open. It\u2019s a mandatory WTA tournament, so she\u2019s facing a possible $10,000 fine and could lose points for her rankings.<\/p>\n The Philippine Tennis Association has already filed an exemption for Eala to the WTA, though it might not be enough to avoid punishment.<\/p>\n According to Tennis Head<\/a>, the WTA rejected the exemption filed by\u00a0Indonesia\u2019s Janice Tjen to skip the China Open. The current World No. 35 decided to withdraw from the Asian Games and play in Beijing instead.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJuan Paolo David<\/a> Juan Paolo David is a sports journalist covering basketball for Heavy. He has a decade of experience writing about the NBA and WWE. He’s currently based in the Philippines. More about Juan Paolo David<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty TORONTO, ONTARIO – AUGUST 07: Alexandra Eala of the Philippines celebrates against Caty McNally of the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-890667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1920x1080-2026-09-05T015724.497.png\")
<\/a>GettyPhilippines\u2019 Alexandra Eala celebrates a game point during the women\u2019s singles first round tennis match against USA\u2019s Mary Stoiana<\/a> on day three of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City on September 1, 2026.\n<\/p>\n![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1920x1080-2026-08-18T181900.365.png\")
<\/a>GettyAlexandra Eala of the Philippines acknowledges the crowd after losing to Belinda Bencic<\/a> of Switzerland during day eight of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers at Sobeys Stadium on August 09, 2026 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images)\n<\/p>\n