Eala going full circle in SIngapore

Alex Eala will not just be shooting for her second WTA 500 title when she competes in the Singapore Tennis Open next week at the OCBC Arena at The Kallang.

She will also revisit a country that got the first glimpse of her massive potential 10 years ago.

In an interview with content creator Toneya Chin on Friday, the 21-year-old Filipina said she considers Singapore as one of her homes despite her whirlwind schedule around the world from Melbourne to London, New York to Paris and, of course, her actual home in the Philippines.

In fact, the Lion City holds a very special place in her heart as this is where she competed in the WTA Future Stars in 2016 and 2017, a grassroots development program that is part of the WTA Finals showcase and aims to discover and develop emerging tennis players throughout the Asia Pacific region.

In her first stint in 2016, the then 11-year-old Eala bagged the Li Na Inspiration Award that honored her outstanding spirit, positivity, and sportsmanship both on and off the court.

She returned to Singapore for the same event the following year to compete against prominent junior players from 20 Asia Pacific countries and territories in the 12U division. She was joined by Tracy Llamas, who represented the country in the U14 division, and national coach Roland Kraut.

“I love Singapore. I used to compete here very often as a kid because this was one of the hubs for tennis in Southeast Asia,” Eala said in a report by CNA Lifestyle.

“There’s also obviously a very huge Filipino community here. I do have close relatives here that, whenever I was in town, I’d go see.”

Eala is tipped to go full blast in the Singapore Tennis Open.

With world No. 3 Jessica Pegula pulling out at the last minute due to an injury, Eala has a handsome chance of making a deep run as she was elevated to the third seed in the ranking behind world No. 5 Mirra Andreeva and world No. 11 Amanda Anisimova.

Other prominent players in the field are defending champion Elise Mertens, Maja Chwalinska, Barbora Krejcikova, Maria Sakkari, Janice Tjen, Donna Vekic, Wang Xinyu, and Filipino-Canadian Leylah Fernandez, who was given a wildcard berth.

Eala said she is thrilled to play in Singapore, especially since it is just a mere four-hour flight away from Manila with a large Filipino community ready to fill up every single corner of the stands of the 3,000-seater arena that also hosted the Southeast Asian Games in 2015.