The ascent of Alex Eala to global prominence has brought with it a wave of Filipinos, both here and abroad, who have followed her every match and learned to appreciate the sport of tennis.
While the support has mostly been positive, there are a few outliers always ready to pounce with negativity and mockery on social media whenever Eala drops a match.
The profiles of the bashers are observably consistent. Some are Western men whose masculinity appears threatened by the success of a young Asian woman. There are also Filipinos—those based locally, who are mostly uninformed about tennis and the grind required to compete on the pro tour—and old men abroad who think posting nasty comments about a young lady, who is doing her best to represent the country, makes them superior Filipinos.
These types surfaced out of the woodwork right after Eala was eliminated in the 4th round of the Miami Open.
Overrated.
All hype.
Always losing.
Not ready for high-level competition. Never mind that she recently defeated world No. 7 Jasmine Paolini and world No. 4 Coco Gauff.
Eala is now at a career-high No. 29 in the world. Even if she drops in the official rankings next week because of points she could not defend from the Miami Open, she has come a long way from her ranking of 140 just a year ago. The WTA ratings are measured not on hype but on actual performance.
Let’s further debunk the assertions of the naysayers, which are founded on nothing more than ignorance.
There have been four WTA 1000 events this season. Only Australian Open champion and world No. 2 Elena Rybakina has not finished lower than the Round of 16 in all four tournaments.
There are just eight players who have reached at least the Round of 16 in three out of four of these 1000 events. These are:
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World No. 5 Jessica Pegula: skipped Qatar, Dubai – Champion, Indian Wells – Quarters, Miami – Quarters (minimum)
No. 6 Amanda Anisimova: Qatar – R32, Dubai – Semis, Indian Wells – R16, Miami – Quarters (minimum)
No. 8 Elina Svitolina: Qatar – R16, Dubai – Finals, Indian Wells – Semis, Miami – R32
No. 9 Victoria Mboko: skipped Dubai, Qatar – Finals, Indian Wells – Quarters, Miami – Quarters
No. 10 Mirra Andreeva: Qatar – R16, Dubai – Quarters, Indian Wells – R32, Miami – R16
No. 12 Belinda Bencic: skipped Qatar, Dubai – R16, Indian Wells – R16, Miami – Quarters
No. 14 Karolina Muchova: skipped Dubai, Qatar – Champion, Indian Wells – R16, Miami – Semis (minimum)
No. 29 Alex Eala: Qatar – R64, Dubai – Quarters, Indian Wells – R16, Miami – R16
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This is how the rest of the Top 20 players in the world fared in the WTA 1000 tournaments:
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No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka: skipped Qatar and Dubai, Indian Wells – Champion, Miami – Quarters (minimum)
No. 3 Iga Swiatek: skipped Dubai, Qatar – Quarters, Indian Wells – Quarters, Miami – R64
No. 4 Coco Gauff: Qatar – R32, Dubai – Semifinals, Indian Wells – R32, Miami – Semis (minimum)
No. 7 Jasmine Paolini: Qatar – R32, Dubai – R32, Indian Wells – R16, Miami – R32
No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova: Qatar – R32, Dubai – R32, Indian Wells – R64, Miami – R32
No. 13 Linda Noskova: Qatar – R32, Dubai – R32, Indian Wells – Semis, Miami – R64
No. 15 Naomi Osaka: skipped Qatar and Dubai, Indian Wells – R16, Miami – R64
No. 16 Clara Tauson: Qatar – R64, Dubai – Quarters, Indian Wells – R32, Miami – R64
No. 17 Iva Jovic: skipped Qatar, Dubai – R16, Indian Wells – R64, Miami – R32
No. 18 Madison Keys: skipped Qatar and Dubai, Indian Wells – R32, Miami – R32
No. 20 Diana Shnaider: Qatar – R64, Dubai – R32, Indian Wells – R64, Miami – R32
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(C) Alex Eala/Miami Open
Eala is the only player outside the top 20 to make the Round of 16 in three out of the four tournaments.
Among those ranked 21st to 30th, no one has reached the Round of 16 three times. Only No. 24 Jelena Ostapenko and No. 26 Qinwen Zheng have made the Round of 16 twice.
The 20-year-old Filipina has notched 14 victories in 22 matches this season, winning 63.63% of her matches on the WTA main tour.
Among the top 20 players, 13 have better winning percentages than Eala. She, however, has a better record than Paolini (53.33%), Alexandrova (38.46%), Noskova (60%), Osaka (62.5%), Tauson (50%), Keys (61.5%), and Shnaider (53.33%).
Among players ranked 21 to 50, only three have better winning percentages than Eala: No. 35 Sorana Cirstea (77.27%), No. 41 Sara Bejlek (75%), and No. 44 Elisabetta Cocciaretto (75%).
Eala is performing better than 33 other players in the top 50 this season. She has also posted better results in the last four WTA 1000 events than more than half of the players ranked in the top 20.
These are the facts. Facts cannot be disputed, even by the harshest critics and the meme haters.
