told<\/a> The Tennis Channel.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cI learned through bits and pieces of what people and the fans themselves tell me. And I understand that I represent a lot. I represent a minority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eala is the only player from the Philippines to have a singles ranking on the WTA Tour. There are four on the ATP Tour, but none of them is in the top 1300. \u00a0She has an Instagram following of more than 1.6M and is known for having an army of fans supporting her wherever she goes. In July, Eala was awarded a Presidential Citation for her Wimbledon run. The honour is a\u00a0\u2018distinct recognition awarded for extraordinary service or gallantry by the Philippine government.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the first Filipina to kind of make it at this stage in tennis, and that doesn\u2019t just go for the Philippines necessarily, but maybe another nationality or another little girl who maybe didn\u2019t see a pathway before that,\u201d\u00a0she continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really grateful for everyone who supports me. They\u2019re the reason I have this platform at the end of the day. It just adds to how meaningful my job is to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being in the media spotlight will inevitably create more pressure for Eala to perform well. However, she believes this demand is no greater than her own personal objectives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a competitive athlete, so there\u2019s pressure,\u201d\u00a0she explained. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the obligation also comes to myself. I\u2019m a very self-demanding person. I\u2019m a very ambitious person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that this is my journey first and foremost and I have the expectations I have of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Washington, Eala has already beaten Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng and defending champion Leylah Fernandez. In the quarter-finals, she will play either second seed Elina Svitolina or qualifier Polina Kudermetova.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexandra Eala says she is representing a minority on the Tour as she continues her rise in tennis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-835795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}