Sleepless with Eala

Sleepless with Eala | Daily Tribune

Before anything else, however, for the benefit of the far more numerous “Team Puyat” novices swept up by tennis mania, the year-long WTA seven-swing season starts on the hard courts of the Australia swing in January and February, ending with the tour’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open.

Mid-February, the tour wings off to the Middle East swing of WTA 500 and 1000 matches and their massive paydays and ranking points.

By early March, the tour is into the “sunshine swing” of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California and the Miami Open in Florida, where Eala had her first big breakthrough.

Late March and early June is the “clay court swing” on the red-clay courts of various European capitals, finishing with the second slam, the legendary Roland Garros finals in Paris, France.

July is about low-bouncing balls of the “grass court swing” and the stately all-in-white garb of fabled Wimbledon, the third slam. Eala literally became a global star at this year’s oldest and prestigious tennis tournament.

August is formally the fast balls of the “hard court swing.” Eala’s recent explosive feat at the Mubadala Open in Washington D.C. is part of a mix of 1000, 500, and 250 tourneys in North America, with each player building their individual momentums towards the final grand slam, the US Open in New York.

Immediately after the US Open comes the humid stamina-busting Asian swing, crucial for players seeking more ranking points and for elite players securing qualification in the WTA finals.

The WTA finals are the grandest in WTA’s calendar after the four slams as it features only the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams. This year’s finals will be held at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Meanwhile, with Eala attaining World No. 20 last Tuesday, not only did it mean she’s in WTA’s elite tier, it also means her tennis schedule now revolves around the four slams, the seven mandatory WTA 1000 tournaments like the ongoing Canadian Open in Toronto, and the six required of any WTA 500 events each season.

As we can readily see, “Team Puyat,” by now probably counting most of us, undoubtedly has its remaining nights and days, even weeks, full.

Still, “Team Puyat” is but a small part of the “Eala effect,” generally meaning Alex Eala’s remarkable impact on the Filipino’s continuing conversations about being a Filipino.

So, beyond the sleepless nights and the WTA tour, the “Eala effect” is also about us joyfully celebrating weekly how a young Filipina lefty tennis player is changing how current tennis looks, sounds and feels; of how she’s putting yet again the Filipino on the world stage; and of how she inspires young and old Filipinos here and all over the world to be proud, to dream big, to work hard and to believe that anything is possible.