Eala became the first Filipino to reach a tour-level final in the Open Era at the 2025 Eastbourne Open, the cherry on top of a 12-month period that also saw her beat former Grand Slam champions Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old will get another chance to show what she can do at the highest level at Indian Wells next month.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the tournament, four-time Grand Slam winner Clijsters has called on the sport to protect Eala from the growing euphoria surrounding her. <\/p>\n
“She\u2019s been around people with a mindset that demands a lot but is also very focused on: you have to put in the work, you are respectful,” said Clijsters during an episode of her ‘Love All’ podcast.<\/a> Watch raucous scenes as Eala wins set with bagel and her adoring fans go wild<\/p>\n Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n “And she\u2019s been around that environment, and I think there\u2019s no coincidence that she has the results that she has.<\/p>\n “But I think it\u2019s very important for her to be a little bit protected from the craziness that comes with that all as well. And just the ability to keep focusing on what she has to do.<\/p>\n “[She has to] deal with this life of being like Michael Jordan in the Philippines.<\/p>\n “People just think it\u2019s online, and it\u2019s in the news and everything, but it\u2019s not easy, I think, to deal with changes like that, so quickly.”<\/p>\n Eala\u2019s talent was nurtured at the Rafa Nadal Academy, where she built a strong relationship with the Spanish tennis legend.<\/p>\n Rafael Nadal has been a vocal supporter of his protegee since she first burst on the scene, going as far as practising with her despite his retirement.<\/p>\n Clijsters believes that the Spaniard has been protective of his former pupil, particularly in the wake of her defeat against Alycia Parks at the Australian Open earlier this year.<\/p>\n Eala attracted a massive crowd for her main-draw debut Down Under, but Clijsters thinks her popularity can be a tricky element to deal with.<\/p>\n “Having that support, we saw it this year after the Australian Open where Rafa spoke out about being a little bit of a protector for her as well,” added Clijsters, who won the US Open in 2005, 2009 and 2010 as well as the 2011 Australian Open during her illustrious career.<\/p>\n “Because when she lost to Alycia Parks at the Australian Open in a close three-setter, she also got a lot of hate from her fans and from the Philippine world, and the fans that support her from her home country.<\/p>\n “So there\u2019s a lot of new things that she\u2019s dealing with at such a young age.<\/p>\n “She\u2019s been in Spain for many years, since I think she was 13 – she moved to Spain and trained at Rafa\u2019s academy.”<\/p>\n Eala is one of the seeded players in the main draw of Indian Wells this year.<\/p>\n Mirra Andreeva came out on top in the women\u2019s singles at the tournament last time out, but a host of big names will be hoping to dethrone her next month.<\/p>\n Eala could potentially go head-to-head with tennis legend Serena Williams<\/a>, with rumours swirling that the icon of the sport could make a sensational return.Watch and stream live tennis – including the 2026 French Open – on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch as Eala soaks up ovation from her fans after defeat to Parks Video credit: TNT Sports Former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[162835,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-449543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-indian-wells-womens-singles-2026-w","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-212a46a6-3a9e-4bcb-9fd2-053c6b555370-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n