MANILA, Philippines — Tennis great Rafa Nadal congratulated Filipino rising star Alex Eala for winning her first WTA title at the Guadalajara 125 Open in Mexico.
Eala defeated Hungarian Panna Udvardy, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, in the final on Sunday, making history as the first Filipino WTA champ.
“Congrats Alex Eala for your first WTA title,” wrote the 39-year-old Nadal on his social media pages on Sunday.
“I am happy and proud of what you are achieving for yourself and for the Philippines,” the 22-time Grand Slam champ added.
Nadal and Eala share a strong connection, especially with the latter studying from the former’s Rafa Nadal Academy at Mallorca, Spain, where she graduated in June 2023.
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In the nine years since Nadal’s Academy opened, Eala is certainly one of the best it produced.
A former 2-time Juniors Grand Slam champ, Eala is now a WTA champion with a current ranking of 61st and a career-best 56th.
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The 20-year-old has beaten world no. 6 Madison Keys and two Grand Slam champs in no. 2 Iga Swiatek and no. 24 Jelena Ostapenko.
Eala defeated the aforementioned players in one tournament which was the Miami Open last March, making a semis finish that catapulted her from ranked 140th to 75th.
Last August, Eala became the first Filipino to win a singles main draw match in the Open era after turning back world no. 12 Clara Tauson in their first round encounter at the US Open.
