ALEX Eala has practically hit the big time, indeed. Proof of that once more is the fact that she’s been included in the mixed doubles event of the 2026 US Open now underway with the qualifying matches being completed in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York.
Seemingly, only the tennis elite are highlighted in mixed-doubles play, making Eala a certified world superstar this early in her career.
That is really something to crow about as Eala is not even a Grand Slam winner yet. And she has yet to crash into the Top 10 world rankings.
But she’s slowly inching her way up. Only last Monday, August 24, she was upgraded to No. 18 from No. 20, another huge hop that should auger well for the 21-year-old Filipino superstar, morale-wise.
With her new ranking, Eala officially becomes the first Southeast Asian to achieve that plateau-another feather to her cap going into the last Grand Slam of the season.
It’s a shame that Eala’s mixed-doubles debut was scheduled at 10 p.m. last night, August 25 Philippine time-or hours away before I had to finish this piece in time for deadline.
But whatever the result is, Eala deserves our absolute applause in her team-up with Felix Augur-Aliassime, the world No. 4 from Canada.
We can only pray and hope that they did well against the husband-and-wife team of Ukraine’s world No. 9 Elina Svitolina and France’s Gael Monfils.
Svitolina is the same player that Eala beat earlier this year during the Filipina’s winning streak against several of the Top 10 campaigners in the world.
It was that streak, fashioned across the globe before wildly cheering Filipino crowds, that helped carve Eala’s glory-rich niche now sweeping the global tennis landscape.
Should Eala-Aliassime get past Svitolina-Monfils in the Round of 16 of the Top Draw, they’d meet the winner of the match between Aryna Sabalenka-Novak Djokovic and Leylah Fernandez-Frances Tiafoe.
Sabalenka, of course, is the world No. 1 from Belarus while Serbia’s Djokovic holds the all-time record of 24 Grand Slams in a tie with Virginia Wade.
The duo are heavily favored over the Fil-Canadian Fernandez and American journeyman Tiafoe.
The 23-time major winner Serena Williams is paired with four-time Slam champ Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish star who is returning from a four-month hiatus after hurting his right wrist.
Their opponents will be qualifiers, and should they pull through, they will face the winners of the match between Belinda Bencic-Flavio Cobolli and Taylor Townsend-Alexander Zverev.
Eala’s first singles foe this year will be known possibly on Friday, August 28 Philippine time.
This will be Eala’s second US Open appearance, advancing to the second round last year with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 win over Denmark’s Clara Tauson before losing to Spain’s Cristina Bucsa 6-4, 6-3.
The US Open dangles the biggest winner’s purse of $5.5 million (roughly P116 million) in both the men’s and women’s divisions among all four majors.
Yes, Virginia, we are in the wrong racket.
THAT’S IT By just showing up and playing her first match in the US Open, Alex Eala will earn $190,000-win or lose. If she reaches the Round of 16, she gets $480,000; a quarterfinal stint is worth $780,000, semifinal $1.450 million and runner-up $2.8 million. If Eala remains healthy and active in the next 10 years, she’d be a billionaire by age 31-easily. Tennis is where the money is. Like golf.