An 18-time Grand Slam champion has high hopes for Alex Eala as Filipino fans rally behind her in the ongoing Wimbledon Championships in London.

Former world No. 1 Martina Navratilova of the Czech Republic said the 21-year-old Eala remains the toast of the crowd as Filipino fans are filling up the stands of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

Eala was battling world No. 87 Maya Joint of Australia in the second round as of press time.

She is also set to play in the women’s doubles with Czech netter Nikola Bartunkova as they face No. 31 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and world No. 104 Sofia Kenin of the United States in the Round of 64.

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t go to that (another third-set tiebreaker) because I think both players will lose their minds if it goes that long. But, yeah, we have something to look forward to,” Navratilova said.

“I mean, it’s gonna be hard for Maya to come back from that situation, but that’s going to be such an atmosphere with Eala playing in front of all the Philippine fans. What a win that was in Eastbourne, and now we get a replay.”

Even Eala herself was surprised by the large number of Filipinos in London who came out to support her every step of the way.

“I was really surprised. Well, the Filipinos keep surprising me in good ways. I know how notoriously difficult it is to get tickets to this event, so to have what I would call a full house of almost all Filipinos is amazing,” said Eala, who joined tennis icons Felicisimo Ampon and Raymundo Deyro as the only Filipinos to win a main-draw match at Wimbledon.

“I never would have thought that at Wimbledon I would have what felt like a home crowd, so I’m super thankful and I really enjoyed that.”

Eala was once again tasked to deliver after Southeast Asian Games silver medalist Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand swept world No. 81 Alycia Parks of the United States, 7-5, 6-0.

Should Eala clinch another victory against fellow youngster Joint, she will be on a collision course with either world No. 73 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic or world No. 3 Iga Swiatek of Poland.

A rubber match between the two young stars could take place if Swiatek advances.

Eala famously stunned Swiatek, 6-2, 7-5, at the Miami Open in March 2025 to break into the WTA Top 100 before the Polish star avenged the loss at the Madrid Open two months later.

By reaching the second round, Eala has already earned £126,000 — or approximately P10.3 million. If she defeats Joint and reaches the Round of 32, she will have a very good payday with £185,000 — or roughly P15.2 million — on her pocket.

Aside from that, she will also earn valuable ranking points that could help propel her further up the Women’s Tennis Association rankings.