Frequent flyer: Eala’s calendar gets filled up

Alex Eala will be spending a lot of time in the air in the coming weeks regardless of the outcome of her ongoing doubles play campaign in the Abu Dhabi Open in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The 20-year-old Eala will have little time to rest as her next competition will be the Qatar Open, her first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 tournament of the year.

While the Rafael Nadal Academy product is already knocked out of the women’s singles, no thanks to a 3-6, 3-6 loss to world No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia in the quarterfinal, she remains in the hunt in doubles with Indonesian Janice Tjen after they subdued Zhang Shuai of China and Cristina Bucsa of Spain, 6-3, 6-3, in the quarterfinal round Friday.

It was still a great run for Eala in singles play as she is guaranteed $35,000 or around P2 million.

Eala and Tjen are competing against Tereza Mihalíková of the Czech Republic and Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain in the semifinal at press time.

As this developed, Eala couldn’t help but feel elated seeing a huge crowd backing her and Tjen in their pursuit of their first doubles crown of 2026.

“Super happy. Thank you everybody,” Eala said.

If Eala and Tjen make it all the way to the final, the Filipina ace will have to make a quick getaway to neighboring Doha as she will be in the main draw of the competition alongside heavyweights like world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, No. 2 Iga Swiatek of Poland, and Australian Open champions Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.

Familiar faces like Mirra Andreeva, Coco Gauff of the United States and Alexandrova are also expected to make it to the Dubai Open as well.

After that, Eala will compete in another WTA 1000 tilt in the Dubai Tennis Championships from 15 to 21 February at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre back in the UAE.

But Eala’s most anticipated tourney will be the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Southern California from 4 to 15 March.

The BNP Paribas Open has been won by a handful of stars like Andreeva, Swiatek, Rybakina, Serena Williams and Russian star Maria Sharapova, who Eala grew up idolizing.

It will be Eala’s debut on these three WTA 1000 tilts thanks to her lofty No. 45 ranking, which is expected to improve in the coming days.

For Eala, it’s all about staying ready and making quick adjustments as she will have to battle with time, fatigue and jet lag.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from – if you’re on tour, you’re going to have jet lag. That’s just the reality,’ Eala said.

“Sometimes you’re running on three or four hours of sleep, but you still have to go out and play.”

In the meantime, Eala’s frequent flyer card is going to get a massive bump.