The Ball's in Her Court

Alex Eala talks to Newsweek about playing out an early childhood passion for tennis on the international stage

- JOE KOZLOWSKI

IT'S A CLICHE TO SAY THAT THE TEENAGE years are a time of quick changes and non-stop milestones. For Alex Eala, though, that truism exists on an entirely different level.

Consider the 19-year-old tennis player's 2025 to date. At the Miami Open, the Filipina ace made international headlines by knocking off Madison Keys and Iga Świątek, two of the top five players in the world. That pushed Eala into the WTA Top 100, making both personal and national history.

Eala was in Spain for the recent Madrid Open during the massive blackout that halted life on the Iberian Peninsula, made her Italian Open debut in early May—where she also reached the doubles quarterfinals with current No. 2 Coco Gauff—and will enter a Grand Slam via the main draw for the first time at the French Open, rather than as a wild card, thanks to her boost in the ranking from No. 140 to 75 after Miami.

Think that sounds like a lot? Well, you're not entirely wrong. But Eala tries to take it in her stride. “Well, for me, I think it’s important to keep things simple because sometimes if you read into things too much, it can get very overwhelming,” Eala told Newsweek.

“And, you know, with being able to navigate black-outs or navigate losses, you know, in the end, these are experiences that you're going to be talking about in 20 years’ time and tell, I don’t know, your kids, your friends, ‘Oh, this happened.’”

“And this is the, like, the life on tour, the life of a tennis player, the life that I’ve dreamed of ever since I was little. So, to be able to just live it and to be surrounded by all of these great players and great people who've achieved so many things...I feel so grateful and so blessed.”