Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s Davis Cup team-mate reacts after US Open winner withdraws<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI feel so blessed now and it\u2019s so difficult to grasp sometimes, because if you think about it, there are 115 million Filipinos and I am the first tennis player in history,\u201d said Eala.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo sometimes it\u2019s so crazy. But I\u2019m so happy to be able to give back to my country in any way that\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very ambitious, I think everybody has huge dreams in tennis. To be world number one and to win Grand Slams is my dream, but in the bigger scale of things\u00a0to be a professional tennis player and to reach this level is something I\u2019m already very proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eala\u2019s breakthrough run at the Miami Open this year was extraordinary, with the star beating three Grand Slam winners \u2014 Madison Keys, Jelena Ostapenko, and Iga Swiatek \u2014 on her way to the semi-final.<\/p>\n
However, perhaps her most eye-catching moment this year was her opening-round win at the US Open, Eala rallying from 5-1 down in the third set to stun 14th seed Clara Tauson.<\/p>\n
Asked to compare both of those \u201chistoric\u201d moments, the Filipina revealed that her run in Miami held slightly more significance.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThat\u2019s a very difficult comparison \u2014 I think both were very historic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have to say Miami, though because I feel like it was\u2026 It\u2019s difficult to say. They\u2019re each very, very special in my heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have to say Miami because I think it was a longer run. But obviously, my match against [Clara] Tauson was so, so emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read Next: Coco Gauff\u2019s tennis schedule for rest of 2025: How many points is she defending?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Eala admits that she is \u201cblessed\u201d to have made Filipino tennis history in 2025 despite setting her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-154325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}