Alexandra Eala may not have won the WTA’s breakthrough player of the year award for 2025, but she remains one of the sport’s most captivating stories in recent memory.
After all, it’s always refreshing to see a superstar emerge from a lesser-represented nation within tennis, and the Philippines is one such example.
Alexandra Eala has only really enjoyed this one full season on tour, and yet has already ticked off most of her country’s milestones within the sport.
She finished 2025 as the first Filipino to reach a WTA final, break into the top 50, beat a former Grand Slam finalist and top-30 player and win a Grand Slam title.
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However, it was her run to the semi-finals in Miami that really cemented her legacy in the Philippines, stamping her mark on the WTA Tour.
When Alexandra Eala reminded Mats Wilander of John McEnroe
In fact, during this run, Mats Wilander was keen to laud the 20-year-old for her mesmeric run.
After all, whilst Eala was a two-time former junior Grand Slam champion, such a surprising and deep run at an event of this magnitude was still wholly unexpected.
Such was the brash and fearless nature of her performances in Miami, it actually spurred the seven-time Grand Slam champion to compare this young starlet to none other than John McEnroe.
Wilander admitted to TNT Sports: “With Alexandra Eala, we’re talking about someone who has hands given by God.
“She understands the game as good as any player on tour. She reminds me of Marcelo Rios, where the talent is just boiling out of the fingers and boiling out of her hand, and she can do anything. And then the reason I say Marcelo Rios is, of course, she’s left-handed.
“In the women’s game, that is so cool that we have someone that comes out that does all these things that maybe [Aryna] Sabalenka and Swiatek are not great at doing. They’re great at other things.
“But suddenly, we have a player that can play tennis that is mystical to the rest of us. Like, ‘Oh, my God, how do you do that? How do you understand tennis? How do you hit those shots?’
“The feel, the understanding, I love it. It’s basically what John McEnroe did to us in the 1980s.”
A former Grand Slam champion reached out to Eala after her performance in Miami too, offering crucial support that should help her continued development.
Alexandra Eala could be due a deep run at a Grand Slam in 2026
Whilst Eala may have enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2025, there was one thing missing from her stunning season: a deep run at a Grand Slam.
That could be attributed to her tough draws, which saw her facing the defending Wimbledon champion, Barbora Krejčíková, and the 14th-seeded Clara Tauson at the US Open.
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As such, her peak at these elite events was just the second round, providing a solid foundation, but with plenty of room to improve upon in the years to come.
Now expected to gain direct entry into all majors, should she maintain her current trajectory, the hope is that Eala can put together a fine run of form to propel herself into the second week of a slam.
Given how she has reached the final of a WTA event and gone deep in a Masters 1000 tournament too, this feels like the next natural step for the Filipino, and one she’s more than capable of taking.
