British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Var · Futures level

RE: Week 7 - WTA1000 - Dubai, UAE Hard

Lambda · Masters Series Champion

She's just getting the support here because there is a large ex-pat filipino community in the middle east.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Var wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
wales1994 wrote:
Alex Eala also making the QFs with insane crowds for this swing - they're usually empty stands, but because of her there are plenty of bums on seats. And the noise when she wins, WOW. She's a huge asset for the WTA when winning.
Eala has COMPLETELY passed me by, I need to check her results, has she won anything big?

I am guessing the fan base is due to her being Asian and playing somewhere relatively close to home or is she getting this support everywhere she plays? Is it bigger than Osaka?
Need to look her up - I have heard them name but no nothing at all about her!!
This captures pretty well Jon https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/philippines/the-alex-eala-phenomenon-what-the-hype-is-all-about-1.500444910

Thank you - and forgive me terrible spelling and grammar!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Looking her up, I see with Andreeva, Jovic, Mboko, Joint, we have a decent crop of younger names hitting the top of the womens game, before we even get to Eala. And not forgetting established younger players like Coco. Womens tennis could be in for a decent patch. Interesting to see how they all play out this season.

wales1994 · County player

Lambda wrote:
She's just getting the support here because there is a large ex-pat filipino community in the middle east.

This is partly true, but I think the scale of Filipino immigration is easy to underestimate - over 10% of the Philippines population lives abroad.

She also drew huge crowds at the Aussie Open. Even though she lost in the first round, Parks was visibly unimpressed during and after.

The USA alone has around 4.1 - 4.6 million people of Filipino descent, and the UK has roughly 200,000 (mostly in London). When I worked at a hospital there, many of the nurses were Filipino. Spain also has over 200,000 Filipino residents. Italy similar numbers too. Her star has definitely risen since last year's Miami Open, and it looks like Filipinos will come out in masses to her games. With only a handful of 'big' results, she's almost at 1 million followers on Instagram - that's pretty significant. Many in the top 10 are nowhere near that.