Filipina ace Alex Eala has, by and large, had a successful 2026. She entered the year ranked No. 53 in the world and will most likely end up inside the top 20 at season’s end. She had a historic run in Wimbledon, won her first-ever WTA-level title at the Mubadala DC Open, and notched a couple more wins against top 10 players.
Recently, however, Eala seems to have hit a wall. The 21-year-old blew a 4-2 lead in the deciding set of her Round of 32 loss to good friend Iva Jovic at the US Open, lost to World No. 123 Tatiana Prozorova in the Round of 16 at the Singapore Open, and then settled for bronze in the 20th Asian Games as the top seed and overwhelming favorite.
Alex Eala’s Capacity to Suffer
Needless to say, the last two months haven’t been too kind to Alex Eala. Don’t think she’s bothered by it, though. If anything, the Quezon City native welcomes this kind of adversity, as she told Maria Sharapova in her guesting at the latter’s Pretty Tough podcast on Wednesday.
“One thing that I’ve learned in the past couple of months about myself is my capacity to suffer and be in those situations where you’re uncomfortable and you’re out of breath and you’re nervous,” Eala told Sharapova. “Of course, it’s always easier to enjoy when you’re winning. And when you’re winning you tend to forget how it feels like to be losing consecutively…”
True enough, Alex Eala has been losing in heartbreaking fashion lately—the kind that could bring down even athletes at the highest levels. Not this fighter of a Filipina, though. Not Alex Eala.
“…I’ve been almost looking forward to those moments where I’m out of breath or those moments when I’m really nervous, and I’ve learned to enjoy facing them head-on. I say to myself, ‘You’ve been there so many times, and you know how to handle it, you know how to do it,’” Eala explained.
Facing Adversity Head-On
If anything, Alex Eala has made a career out of overcoming adversity, rising to the occasion time and again just as pundits think she’s about to fall off completely. So, don’t be surprised if that’s exactly what she’ll do to end the 2026 season.
Eala can start at the WTA 1000 Wuhan Open, where she’ll join World No. 4 Coco Gauff, World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, World No. 9 Iga Swiatek, and World No. 5 Mirra Andreeva, among others as the headline names of the tournament. It is a stacked field to say the least—so stacked that it could make anyone nervous and out of breath.
