NEW YORK – Alexandra Eala is living a dream in New York after claiming her first Grand Slam victory, giving the Philippines a glimpse of the unknown: never before has a player from her country won a match at a major tournament.
“I’m very grateful to be the first to achieve it. I’m really proud to represent my country. It makes what I do bigger than myself and gives a special meaning to my work. It’s hard to think that I’m the first to accomplish something like this, because it’s also my first time experiencing this journey on tour,” she told reporters.
The Grandstand at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was filled with supporters, many of them Filipino, who celebrated Eala’s 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (13-11) victory over 14th seed Clara Tauson.
The Dane led 5-1 in the third set, but Eala managed to turn the match around, adding even more significance to her historic victory.
The New York metropolitan area is home to one of the largest Filipino diasporas in the Western Hemisphere. According to 2014 Census estimates, more than 260,000 Filipinos or Filipino descendants were living there at the time.
“We don’t have any WTA tournaments in the Philippines where I can play in front of my home crowd, but this feels special because of the big community that supports me here,” the 20-year-old said during her on-court interview.
Eala was born in Quezon City, part of the Manila metropolitan area. Her grandfather encouraged her and her brother to play tennis in the hope of securing a scholarship at North American universities.
At the club where she played there was only one hard court. The rest were made of crushed seashells, similar to clay but with a finer, sandier texture.
“My grandfather thought about the bigger picture and would say: ‘Outside the Philippines there are no shell courts. If we want to compete abroad, we have to learn on hard courts,’” Eala recalled in an interview with Town&Country magazine. Courts were used on a first-come, first-served basis, so her grandfather would arrive hours before she left school, and the Eala siblings played every day on that hard court.
It proved a wise move from her grandfather, bearing its first big reward several years later, in March 2025, when Eala announced herself to the world by reaching the semi-finals of the Miami Open. That remarkable run included victories over Iga Swiatek, Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys.
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Her success in New York was joined by that of her friend Janice Tjen from Indonesia, with whom she has shared the circuit since childhood at tournaments across Southeast Asia. No Indonesian woman had won a Grand Slam match in 22 years.
“I’m really happy to see the progress of tennis in Southeast Asia as a whole. I’ve known Janice for a long time, so I’m glad for her. I’m pleased that players from this region are emerging and starting to have success,” she said.
