Eala comes of age
Other than physically defining courage, determination and grit, the dive concisely summarized what was foretold after Swiatek lost the first match point to Eala.
Daily TribuneOther than physically defining courage, determination and grit, the dive concisely summarized what was foretold after Swiatek lost the first match point to Eala.
ALEX Eala will be competing in the Canadian Open as world No. 54.
GLYN KIRK/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Alexandra Eala’s uncanny horizontal left forehand dive in the second set of her match last week against Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek is the year’s iconic sports image.
With her dive after a post-serve stumble, scrappy Eala kept the ball alive and got up swiftly. But Swiatek easily returned and won the point.
But that dive forever fixed Eala’s coming of age, cementing her inimitable sporting motto — “Kapag lumago, hindi na mahihinto (Once it grows, it cannot be stopped) — as all too true.
Yet, the amazing dive wasn’t all that there was to Eala’s epic third round battle on tennis’ grandest stage, the first Filipino ever to make it there.
Other than physically defining courage, determination, and grit, the dive concisely summarized what was foretold after Swiatek lost the first match point to Eala.
As tennis legend and Eala mentor Rafael Nadal once wryly noted, “The first point is always important, more so in a Wimbledon final.”
Eala’s third blockbuster showdown with Swiatek at Wimbledon did feel and look like a final, where the duelists gave no quarter during the gripping first set of superb world-class tennis.
The showdown too showed shrewd Eala tactically turning her weaknesses into potent advantages.
Eala’s serve is undeniably underpowered. Swiatek conceded in her post-match takedown of her loss: “I felt like she was serving slower and slower, and it became tougher and tougher for me to return those serves. That, for me, was hard to accept.”
Nevertheless, the forehand dive near the match’s end served up the true meaning of tennis’ one enduring lesson: Never surrender a single point.
A lesson on points Nadal again ably summarized: “I learned that you always have to hang in there… you have to push yourself to the very limit of your abilities…that the key to this game resides in the mind, and if the mind is clear and strong, you can overcome almost any obstacle, including pain. Mind can triumph over matter.”
Alexandra Eala admirably played out that lesson well, proving in the process the potent sturdy resilience of the Filipino mind and body, with even more left to celebrate.
Before stating that her recent win meant everything to her, Eala sang paeans to her chubby-cheeked tennis childhood of “ruffled socks and light-up shoes” under her grandfather’s strict tutelage. She hoped her younger self inspires dreams in other young girls to go on their own journeys on their own terms.
But little did toddler Eala know that her grandfather’s exacting endurance regimen would also be the exact same principle that her school, the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca, Spain where she went on a full scholarship, would drum into her — that gaining endurance from rigorous, often numbing, daily tennis sessions is what separates champions from the merely talented.
Alexandra Eala is justly celebrated now. Tennis legends and Eala’s idols Billie Jean King, Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova, as well Eala’s fellow players, have sent their cheers.
But even as Eala goes on weaving her enthralling presence on tennis courts worldwide, she always blows her kisses and thanks to thousands of her proud flag-waving fellow Filipinos who endure long lines like Wimbledon’s storied queue, happily buying up exorbitant match tickets, and boisterously cheering “Go Alex Go!” in the stands or if not, in roaring watch parties at home, with all evincing the deep felt sense a fellow Filipino is again pulling the Filipino out of the world’s shadows and onto the main stages.
