After making a splash at the Wimbledon Championships over the past two weeks, there is no place like home for Alex Eala.

Before shifting her focus to the North American hard-court swing, the 21-year-old Filipina star will take a well-deserved break in the Philippines following the finest stretch of her young career.

Fans will get a chance to welcome her home as Globe Telecom — one of her longtime supporters — hosts a meet-and-greet on 15 July at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati City.

It will be Eala’s first appearance in the country since January when she competed in the Philippine Women’s Open, a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 125 tournament where she reached the quarterfinals before bowing to eventual champion Camila Osorio.

Eala returns home after a grueling yet rewarding grass-court campaign that firmly established her as one of the WTA Tour’s rising stars.

She captured the Birmingham Classic title on 7 June, defeating Nikola Bartunkova for her maiden grass-court championship.

The momentum carried into the Berlin Thennis Championships, where she reached the semifinals behind stunning victories over world No. 2 Elena Rybakina and world No. 8 Elina Svitolina, proving she could challenge the sport’s elite on one of its fastest surfaces.

She also enjoyed a memorable doubles stint at the Bad Homburg Open, teaming up with seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams before the pair bowed out in the quarterfinals against Olivia Nicholls and Tereza Mihalikova.

But it was at Wimbledon where Eala truly announced herself to the tennis world.

Seeded No. 29, Eala opened her campaign with a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over Renata Zarazua before avenging her Eastbourne Open finals loss by defeating Maya Joint, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0, in the second round.

She then produced the biggest win of her career, stunning defending champion and world No. 3 Iga Swiatek, 7-6, 6-2, to reach the Round of 16.

Even Swiatek admitted that Eala’s unorthodox serve disrupted her rhythm throughout the match.

“I think it was tougher mentally for me to accept these missed returns from the slow serves. It’s much tougher to return a serve like that than a normal serve. She was serving slower and slower, and it became tougher and tougher for me to return those serves.”

Eala’s fairytale run at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club eventually ended in the Round of 16 following a hard-fought 4-6, 6-4, 3-6 defeat to world No. 17 Jasmine Paolini.

Despite the loss, it marked the deepest Grand Slam run of her career after years of early exits on tennis’ biggest stages. The performance also boosted her confidence heading into the remainder of the season.

“One thing I think is how I’ve handled pressure. I mean, there’s pressure every week, right? Of course, the more you want to win, I think the more pressure goes along with that,” Eala said.

“I’m happy with how I faced it head-on. I think I kept cool when I needed to control my emotions. Overall, I performed the best that I could on the day.”

With a historic Wimbledon campaign behind her and a hero’s welcome awaiting at home, Eala now turns her attention to the hard-court season carrying not only career-best form, but also the belief that she belongs among the world’s best.