Will Alex Eala be the following tennis golden lady for the nation within the Southeast Asian Video games? —KEATS LONDON
MNAILA, Philippines–Alex Eala is gazing a full calendar for subsequent 12 months as she hunts for profession milestones that, for the primary time in her younger profession, embrace profitable the Southeast Asian Video games (SEAG) gold medal for the Philippines.
Her inclusion within the Philippine group is seen as a golden alternative for the nation, which final gained a gold medal in SEA Video games ladies’s competitions 22 years in the past.
“Alex is absolutely dedicated and excited for subsequent 12 months because the plan is for her to play wherever from 22 to 27 tournaments, which can embrace the SEA Video games in Could,” her father, Mike, informed the Inquirer.
The youthful Eala was purported to don the nationwide colours as early as 2019, however her coaching and competitions schedule conflicted with the tryouts set by the Philippine Tennis Affiliation.
She completed the 12 months ranked 527th within the Girls’s Tennis Affiliation from as excessive as 505th. However her father mentioned Alex will nonetheless be competing in juniors, pursuing the Philippines’ first-ever Grand Slam singles titles.
Nonetheless, Eala might be skipping the Australian Open, the primary Grand Slam of the 12 months, the place she gained the ladies doubles championships in 2020 together with Priska Nugroho of Indonesia.
As an alternative, Eala will open the following season with three Worldwide Tennis Federation professional tournaments at Rafael Nadal Academy (RFA) beginning Jan. 17. She is now spending her preseason coaching in Florida underneath her RNA coaches.
“We are going to proceed to see Alex taking part in extra skilled tournaments as she continues her transition into knowledgeable participant,” mentioned Mike.
Regardless of spending 10 weeks therapeutic an injured foot, Eala was capable of play 20 tournaments, counting six juniors occasions, this 12 months. She gained the W15 in Manacor and three junior titles.The World No. 3 in juniors dominated the JA Milan singles and doubles in addition to the French Open ladies doubles with Russia’s Oksana Selekhmeteva.
Eala has but to play in a giant, multisport competitors just like the SEA Video games.
The final time the nation gained the ladies’s singles gold medal was in 1999 courtesy of Maricris Fernandez. Previous to that, the one different ladies’s singles victory for the Philippines was Pia Tamayo’s gold in 1981.
From then on, it’s been a protracted, dry spell for the PH ladies’s tennis.
It’s as much as Eala to finish that wait.
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