Alexandra Eala of the Philippines is only 21 years old. However, her global popularity at this time is skyrocketing. You could make the argument that the country of the Philippines has not seen a high performance athlete have this much popularity since boxer Manny Pacquiao was in his prime.
Eala made tennis headlines a year ago when she made the semifinals of the 2025 Miami Open and beat Iga Swiatek of Poland to get there. Since then, Eala made the finals of Eastbourne in 2025 (lost to Australia’s Maya Joint, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6), made the quarterfinals of Dubai in 2026, and the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2026. In England earlier this summer, Eala defeated Swiatek again 7-6, 6-2.
This summer we have seen Eala’s popularity grow even more. She won her first WTA Tournament just over a week ago in Washington when she beat Jessica Pegula of the United States in the final, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, and was performing in front of big crowds at the National Bank Open in Toronto. It should be noted that Toronto has a Filipino population of 133,000.
What was an even more interesting decision by Tennis Canada came on Friday. They decided to put the third round match between Leylah Annie Fernandez of Canada versus Mirra Andreeva of Russia in the afternoon, and the third round match between Eala and American Caty McNally in primetime, which was sold out according to heavy.com. This was the second straight sellout for an Eala match in Toronto. Eala’s second round match against American Alycia Parks last Wednesday was also sold out.
Eala is now ranked 20th in the world. However, her popularity has generated huge interest in a generally untapped market of southeast Asia when it comes to women’s tennis. After Eakla was knocked out in Toronto on Sunday after a 6-4, 6-0 loss to Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, the attendance at the National Bank Open for Monday’s quarterfinals dropped significantly.
