Alex Eala: ALEXcellence
She won by winning, and won further by losing.
She became victorious by winning; she became a champion by losing.
Because Alexandra “Alex” Eala showed the Philippines, where everyone and his first cousin has a hard time accepting defeat and “daya” is the knee-jerk reaction to loss, that though winning may be everything and the only thing, losing makes a champion. Champions don’t merely win tournaments. They lose them with grace.
“I understand that’s part of the job,” Alex told media upon ending her Wimbledon run. “I don’t think I’m going to be playing the best tennis of my life every single day. I don’t expect that. I’m really proud of how I handled things. I think I just have to kind of move forward and continue with my progress.”
And at 21, that path to progress looks promising for the disciplined, grounded Alex.
ALEXcellence indeed.
There is just no other way for me—who never knew what “Love” meant in tennis till I read up on the sport after Alex’s inspiring performance at Wimbledon—to describe the once chubby-cheeked girl in light-up shoes from the Philippines who sent national pride soaring like a tennis ball over the net with her Wimbledon run.
Alex, racket in hand and grace intact, has won both her country’s admiration and admiration for her country.
Talking to the press after she dethroned the defending champion Iga Swiatek on the fourth of July at the sacred Center Court at the 2026 Wimbledon Open, Alex said the inspiration she gives was forged by a “work ethic.”
Though Alex bowed out with a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking defeat to Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, the spectators at Center Court—royalty, Hollywood royalty and sports royalty—gave her the standing ovation befitting a champion. Who among those who have lost the points have gained the applause like she did? Few, I dare say.
“It was a painful finish to what had become a Cinderella run—one that saw the 21-year-old topple defending champion and World No. 3 Iga Swiatek, electrify Wimbledon with fearless shot-making, and emerge as one of the tournament’s biggest stories,” reported the Philippine STAR.
Through the cheers and perhaps the unseen tears, Alex walked out of the arena, a graceful gladiator.
‘Never say die’
Her victory was a ball of hope swung with a determined racket into the center court of Philippine attention. That may be Alex Eala’s greatest significance today: that she is helping restore a sense of national pride at a moment when many Filipinos are yearning for something and someone to believe in.
In fact, Sen. Ping Lacson called the tennis star a “detoxifier.”
“She is the detoxifier that our country’s highly toxic atmosphere needs and an influential unifier of a deeply divided nation,” he said.
The good senator knew whereof he spoke. Against the backdrop of divisive politics and heartbreaking headlines like the Tacloban shootings involving the youth, Alex has become a rare source of shared optimism, a unifying factor.
There were watch parties over the weekend reminiscent of the watch parties held whenever Manny Pacquiao—whom Alex said “is super inspiring as an athlete”—had boxing bouts. And people showed up and cheered her on, win or lose.
“When it counts, Filipinos can show up,” Alex said.
Of course there were those who weaponized Alex’s accent, education, and social class, but their boos were mere whimpers drowned by the cheers.
When she described her difficult regimen at the Rafael Nadal Academy, never once calling it a boot camp, you knew this girl earned all the calluses on her left hand with blood, sweat, tears and gratitude.
In fact, she learned from Rafa Nadal, her mentor, “Never say die, play like your life depended on every point.”
The photo
The viral photo of Alex prone on the ground but still swinging, is a metaphor for you, me and the country for every hard time we had to overcome—and did. ‘Yan ang unbowed.
Many of us, especially those who are not tennis aficionados, won’t remember every point scored by Alex years from now. But we will remember how she made us feel—that, for a while, amid the noise, we believed in great possibilities.
In April 2024, she posted on Instagram a photo of herself in Disneyland Paris, with this caption: “Have faith in your dreams and someday your rainbow will come shining through”
“Alex Eala has been a phenomenal role model, showing the youth that it is possible to make a mark in the tennis world,” says licensed psychologist Christina Cruz-Huibonhoa. “In her interviews, Alex also displays another important tenet of the (Bandura social cognitive) theory, which is self-efficacy. More than anything, Alex believes in herself and this enables her to persist through whatever challenges come her way. “
After her victory over Iga, she was asked her message for young girls, especially her kababayans, and she said, “It’s an honor to be able to pave the way for young girls. It will be the honor of my life to be able to inspire others but then again you can take inspiration from anywhere you want anyone if you want to be inspired. It will just come to you.
“I try to be as authentic as I can. I believe in being genuine. I believe in my values. This platform allows me to be the best version of myself. A lot look up to me but the main message here is, ‘Don’t look at me and say I want to be the next Alex Eala.’ I want them to look at me and say, ‘I want to be the first me. I want to make my own path’.”
