Alex Eala’s season in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) might be over, but she is still setting her sights on the gold medal of the 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in December in Thailand.

Now one of the world’s most popular faces of the sport, Eala, 20, said she is representing the country in this prestigious biennial meet.

The Rafael Nadal Academy graduate suffered a 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 loss to world No. 21 Victoria Mboko of Canada in the Round of 16 of the Hong Kong Tennis Open last Thursday at Victoria Park.

“Yeah, SEA Games is definitely in my plans,” Eala said, now on the verge of crashing the top 50.

Eala only competed at the 31st SEA Games in Hanoi in 2022, where she won three bronze medals in the women’s singles, mixed doubles, and women’s team.

Back then, Eala was still at No. 214 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings and was still trying to get into high-profile tournaments.

Since her first SEA Games stint, Eala has been slowly making her way up the ratings.

She placed third in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in 2023.

Then two years later, she made a breakthrough in the Miami Open as her semifinal run, which saw her defeat Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and world No. 2 Iga Swiatek of Poland in the process, propelled her to get into the Top 100 of the WTA rankings and grab a main draw spot in the WTA 1000 and Grand Slam tournaments.

Now Eala will be returning to the SEA Games as one of the favorites to win the gold medal for the Philippines in the women’s singles since Maricris Fernandez in the 1999 edition in Brunei.

Eala hopes to stay healthy despite finally getting into the Top 100 of the WTA rankings.

“It’s really amazing, the target I had to end the year was Top 100, and now it’s kind of like pushing it, you know, for me, and we passed that by a milestone, so I’m so happy. But regarding next year, I’m confident that my team has planned accordingly and will plan accordingly, and I’m here to give it my all, and I’ll do my best to stay and to get better,” Eala said.

Eala is expected to start in the main draw of all four Grand Slam tournaments next year, as well as join the 20th Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.