Alex Eala has already made history even before stepping onto the court for her opening match at this year’s Wimbledon Championships.
The 21-year-old rising tennis star has become the first Filipino ever to be seeded in the singles draw at Wimbledon after earning the No. 29 seed.
The Philippines has long shared a rich history with the All England Club, with several Filipinos making their mark at both the junior and professional levels of what is widely regarded as the oldest and most prestigious Grand Slam tournament.
The country’s greatest tennis player, Felicisimo Ampon, was the first Filipino to earn a singles seed in a Grand Slam event. He was seeded twice at the French Open and twice at the US Open. Yet despite his remarkable career, the “Mighty Mite” was never seeded at Wimbledon.
Ampon still enjoyed memorable runs at the grass-court major. He reached the third round in 1949 before losing to Australia’s Geoff Brown in three closely contested sets. Brown had reached the Wimbledon finals in singles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles in 1946.
Ampon returned to the third round in 1950, where he fell to Czech-born, naturalized Egyptian Jaroslav Drobný, who would later capture the 1954 Wimbledon title and become the world’s No. 1 amateur player. Ampon made one final appearance in the third round in 1953.
That same year, another Filipino standout, Reymundo Deyro, also advanced to the third round at Wimbledon. Deyro had first reached that stage in 1948, when he lost to future world No. 1 Frank Sedgman of Australia.
Ampon and Deyro also enjoyed success as doubles partners, reaching the third round of the Wimbledon men’s doubles in both 1948 and 1953.
Nearly three decades later, another Filipino made a deep Wimbledon run. In 1982, Beeyong Sison teamed up with Switzerland’s Markus Günthardt to reach the third round of the men’s doubles competition before bowing out. A year earlier, Sison had also reached the French Open men’s doubles quarterfinals.
Filipinos have likewise made their presence felt in the Wimbledon junior tournament.
Felix Barrientos reached the boys’ singles quarterfinals in 1984 before producing an even better campaign the following year. Seeded 16th, Barrientos won four matches to advance to the semifinals.
In 1986, Jennifer Saberon enjoyed a breakthrough of her own. Teaming up with South Korea’s Kim Il-soon, she reached the girls’ doubles semifinals before falling to Natalia Zvereva and Leila Meskhi. Zvereva would later become one of the greatest doubles players in tennis history, winning 18 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles during her professional career—the fourth-most all-time.
Jennifer Saret followed in Saberon’s footsteps in 1991. Partnering South Korea’s Park Sung-hee, Saret advanced to the girls’ doubles semifinals before losing to eventual champions Catherine Barclay of Australia and Limor Zaltz of Israel, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
In the past two decades, two Filipino doubles specialists have also produced notable Wimbledon performances on the professional circuit.
Longtime Philippine Davis Cup mainstay Eric Taino, who was still representing the United States at the time, partnered American Katie Schlukebir in the mixed doubles event at Wimbledon in 2000. The pair pushed Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt and Belgium’s Kim Clijsters to the limit in the quarterfinals before suffering a heartbreaking 5-7, 7-6, 6-4 defeat. Hewitt would become the men’s world No. 1 in 2001, while Clijsters rose to the women’s world No. 1 ranking in 2003.
Perhaps no Filipino has enjoyed greater success at Wimbledon than Treat Huey, widely regarded as the finest doubles player in Philippine tennis history.
After beginning to represent the Philippines in 2009, Huey became the first Filipino to be seeded at Wimbledon. He and British partner Dominic Inglot were seeded No. 16 in the 2013 men’s doubles tournament before falling in the third round to legendary twins Bob and Mike Bryan, who went on to win the Wimbledon title that year.
Huey’s finest season came in 2016. He reached the Australian Open men’s doubles quarterfinals alongside Belarus’ Max Mirnyi and the mixed doubles semifinals with Slovenia’s Andreja Klepač.
Later that year at Wimbledon, Huey and Mirnyi came within one victory of reaching the men’s doubles final. Seeded 12th, they pushed top seeds and eventual champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut of France to five sets before losing, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4.
Following that breakthrough campaign, Huey climbed to a career-high world ranking of No. 18 and became the first Filipino to qualify for the ATP Finals, the prestigious year-end championship featuring the world’s top eight doubles teams.
Now, more than seven decades after Ampon first made his mark on the lawns of Wimbledon, Eala has added another milestone to Philippine tennis history by becoming the country’s first-ever seeded player in the singles draw of the Championships.
