win a WTA singles crown<\/a>.<\/p>\nShe is now at a career-high 17th in the world and wherever she plays, she is mobbed by huge crowds of her compatriots.<\/p>\n
Learning from Venus<\/p>\n
Part of Eala\u2019s charm is that she does not shy away from engaging with fans.<\/p>\n
How does she do it even after losing?<\/p>\n
\u201cI do my best to give back to them,\u201d said Eala, who is the second seed in Hong Kong and starts her title bid against Parks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that I can do to show them it (their support) is appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her rise to prominence has seen her play alongside multiple Grand Slam winner Venus Williams in doubles.<\/p>\n
The 46-year-old Williams is also playing in Hong Kong this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you\u2019re able to work so closely or be in the vicinity of someone of that magnitude or someone like Venus, you notice a lot of things, and I try to be a little observant,\u201d said Eala.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mindset that she has of aggression on court is amazing and the work ethic is incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the work ethic is something that is difficult to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Intimidating\u2019 Nadal<\/p>\n
Rafael Nadal is another tennis legend that she can draw knowledge from, having come through at his academy in Mallorca.<\/p>\n
When she was named in September by Time magazine in a list of most influential rising stars in the world, Nadal fondly recalled she was the first player he shared a tennis court with since his retirement two years ago.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard called her \u201ca wonderful person \u2013 warm, approachable and humble\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t easy to handle becoming a phenomenon at such a young age,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Eala said Nadal is in communication with her coach \u201cmost of the time\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery once in a while, yes, we are in contact,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019ll congratulate me or I message him on the 10th anniversary of the academy and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can she just call the 22-time Grand Slam champion on the phone any time?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure I can, he\u2019s really open like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s really super down-to-earth, very humble. But that doesn\u2019t take away from the fact that I still get intimidated when I\u2019m around him.\u201d AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONG KONG \u2013 The Philippines\u2019 tennis trailblazer Alexandra Eala remembers the moment it struck her just how wildly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-951065","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\/951065","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=951065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}