Alexandra Eala wowed the world at the 2025 Miami Open, riding her wild card all the way to the semifinals of the WTA 1000. At the time, the Filipina was the world No. 140, but jumped all the way to No. 72 after defeating three seeded players, including Australian Open champion Madison Keys, before falling to Jessica Pegula.
Her momentum has continued throughout the spring, and the 20-year-old played in her first WTA final on Saturday at Eastbourne. While she didn’t win the title, Eala enters Wimbledon at a career-high ranking of No. 56, and will face reigning champion Barbora Krejcikova in her first round match on Tuesday.
Check out some fast facts on the rising star:
Princess of Queens
Eala was the No. 10 seed heading into the 2022 US Open Junior Championships, her seventh appearance at a junior Slam. She defeated three higher-seeded players en route to the title, and didn't drop a set the entire tournament. Eala beat No. 2 seed Lucie Havlickova in the final, 6-2, 6-4.
"It's very overwhelming right now, but I think this is a huge step for me personally, as well," she said at her post-match press conference. "I'm super happy to represent my country and do something with a big platform, being able to inspire other younger people."
First Filipina to…
Eala has been making history for years as one of the few high performance tennis players to come from the Phillippines. In 2022, she was the first person from her home country to win a junior Grand Slam singles title when she lifted the trophy at the US Open. That win also made her the first to claim multiple junior major titles, having earned junior doubles titles at the 2020 Australian Open and 2021 French Open.
In March, she also became the first Filipina to beat a WTA Top 10 (and Top 5) opponent since the WTA rankings began in 1975, defeating Keys during her run in Miami—and then promptly following that up with a two-set win against No. 2 Iga Swiatek. That victory led to her becoming the first player from the Phillippines to reach a WTA Tour-level semifinal. She most recently made history on Saturday at Eastbourne as the first Filipina to play in a WTA final.
She’s a graduate of the Rafa Nadal Academy
In 2018, Eala arrived in Manacor, Spain to train at one of the best academies in the world for aspiring tennis players. She was just 13 when she and her brother left the Phillippines to train and go to school at the academy, but she "jumped at the opportunity," knowing that she would have to leave her home country eventually to reach her goals in the sport.
"The academy has been my home for the past seven years," Eala said after her third round match in Miami. "Of course, my family should take credit for the foundation that they laid out before they sent me there. But of course, the academy was able to build on that foundation in such a way that I'm able to be where I am now."
She received her diploma in 2023 from Rafa himself, and her graduation speaker was Swiatek—little did Eala know that she would defeat the five-time major champion in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open less than two years later.
