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 · 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 · 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.

HowardDubai · Junior player

She gets Filipino support wherever she travels including the ITF tournament she won In Aldershot three years ago. She has become such a star and is having a huge impact on tennis in her homeland. She is currently the only Filipino with a world ranking at present but I predict that to change in the near future.

-- Edited by HowardDubai on Thursday 19th of February 2026 11:01:51 PM

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

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!!

Alex Eala was runner up at Eastbourne in 2025

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

JonH comes home wrote:
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.

It would be nice if our crop of promising youngsters Mimi,Mika or Hannah could reach this standard. As a junior Mika was beating the now top 20 player Jovic to win the US Open junior title in 2024.

pauliscot · Junior player

I think Hannah also beat Jovic too on the way to winning the Orange Bowl

indiana · Tennis legend

I am sure we all really want to see our girls do well, but it is a bit tough to judge them against particularlyJovic's phenomeanal progress.

I'd still be hugely more interested to see how far such as Mimi, Mika and Hannah have developed in 2 or 3 years, though will assuredly still welcome any highs in the meantime.

For me it's not how fast but how far, particuiarly with the recently turned 17 yos Mika and Hannah.