It has paid off \u2013 already \u2013 as Eala has quickly climbed the ladder. She first picked up a racket at age 4 and had discipline and competitiveness instilled by her mother, a former top swimmer. But tennis was a mystery to most in the Philippines, with little heritage in the sport. <\/p>\n
Before Eala, no Filipina had won a WTA singles match or been ranked inside the top 250, let alone playing at a grand slam or reaching the semi-finals of a WTA 1000 event, as she did last year in Miami. Being such a pioneer means Eala had to find role models in other places.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, we haven\u2019t had any players that have reached this level, but when it comes to taking inspiration, you hold the power from where you take inspiration from,\u201d said Eala. \u201cI take inspiration from my family, my brother, my grandfather, who was my first tennis coach. There are so many to look up to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her achievements have made her a national hero in the Philippines, as the country has quickly gone nuts over the quietly spoken left-hander, who is all power and poise on the court. She attracts massive crowds of expatriates wherever she plays, with a raucous atmosphere generated, as shown in Auckland.<\/p>\n
The Eala fever peaked in March last year, with her staggering run in Miami, when she beat three grand slam champions in consecutive matches, including then world No 5 Madison Keys and No 2 Iga Swiatek. There was another chapter in September, as she became the first Filipino to win a grand slam match, stunning world No 12 Clara Tauson at the US Open. Last year, she jumped almost 100 ranking places \u2013 starting 2025 at No 147 and featured on the cover of Vogue and Tatler in her home country. So how does she deal with the ensuing pressure and hype?<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people mention the word pressure when they talk about all this hype and attention, but at the end, you can\u2019t take anything for granted,\u201d said Eala. \u201cComing from where I come from and this whole journey that I\u2019ve had, this is the dream, you know, to play on the tour and to compete against these great players. So all the support and all the love is an added bonus, and I\u2019m very grateful for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, it can be surreal at times, with her father recounting a story of her being recognised at United States immigration in Houston on a trip last year, with the Filipino-born officer incredulous that he was processing Eala\u2019s passport.<\/p>\n
Eala admits things can be \u201ccrazy\u201d when she goes back home, but she tries to maintain a normal life, including visiting the shopping mall, despite the attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to balance when I\u2019m an extrovert and when I\u2019m an introvert,\u201d smiled Eala. \u201cThis fame has just come like quite recently, so I\u2019m still trying to figure out like what works best for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eala is a joy to watch on court, with dynamic movement, energy and power off both wings. She has been inspired \u2013 obviously \u2013 by Rafa Nadal, though there is a limit to what she can copy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say that our game styles are so similar, she laughed. \u201cHe\u2019s obviously much stronger than I am, but I try to take things from his mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
After her rollicking three-set win over Donna Vekic on Tuesday night, it was a lot more straightforward on Thursday, with an assured 6-0 6-2 win over world No 82 Petra Marcinko in 62 minutes.<\/p>\n
The Croatian, who was ranked No 1 as a junior, struggled with the windy conditions, making numerous errors. But she was also frustrated by the consistency and accuracy of Eala, who was punishing with her returns.The Filipino also showed grit. After being broken early in the second set, she was 0-40 down in her next service game \u2013 as Marcinko briefly threatened a comeback \u2013 before Eala saved three consecutive break points then held, with a defiant look towards her coaching box.<\/p>\n
Like the legendary Nadal, Eala\u2019s counterpunching style \u2013 and ability to go for her shots from the back of the court \u2013 was evident and enjoyed by the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a fundamental part of my game,\u201d said Eala. \u201cI try to be aggressive when I can, and I try to recognise when it\u2019s not the time to be aggressive. That\u2019s something I\u2019m still working on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eala, who started her television post-match interview with \u201cKia Ora\u201d, is becoming a crowd favourite here and will be well supported again in Thursday\u2019s quarter-final, where she faces fifth seed Magda Linnette (Poland), with fellow youngster Iva Jovic (USA) also in action, against Belgium qualifier Sofia Costoulas.<\/p>\n
Michael Burgess<\/a> has been a sports journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America\u2019s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has paid off \u2013 already \u2013 as Eala has quickly climbed the ladder. She first picked up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[33215,25286,51,4915,13982,132586,8231,78,111,139,69,4291,8145,12819,213,129771],"class_list":["post-223274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alexandra","tag-asb","tag-auckland","tag-classic","tag-continues","tag-eala","tag-event","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-philippines","tag-run","tag-sensation","tag-sports","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}