Alex Eala Takes Home Her Third ITF Title, Beating The Odds Along The Way

In her first finals appearance of the year, Eala’s stellar performance is proof that she can rise above the losses and challenges, and take home the win.

Alex Eala takes home another honor for the Philippines as she wins her third International Tennis Federation (ITF) title. The professional tennis player was victorious in against Valentina Ryser in the finals of W25 Yecla in Spain.

The 90-minute match proved to be a challenge, with Eala competing against the Swiss three-time ITF women’s singles and doubles titleholder. Eala took the first three games easily, but Ryser caught up in the following two rounds to gain a one-point lead against the Filipina tennis player. Eala rallied to take back the lead, but by the 10th game Ryser had managed to tie the score. In a final push, however, Eala took the 11th game, and maintained her lead to the 12th game–and all the way to her third ITF win of her career.

Eala, who became the first Filipino to win a junior Grand Slam singles title in the girls’ US Open in 2022, had a rough start in 2023. She debuted in the Australian Open at the start of the year in the first Grand Slam experience as a pro, but ended up losing in the qualifiers. After that, she made it to the main draw of the Hua Hin Championship in Thailand, but was eliminated in the first round. The Yecla final against Ryser was her first finals appearance this year.

“I don’t think tennis is the perfect game,” she shared with Vogue Philippines’ Jacs T. Sampayan in November 2022. “I don’t think there’s any. You’re never always going to win. There’s winning, there’s losing. It depends on how you come back from that loss. And how you take the loss, if you decide to learn from it, to keep it in you, or to let the loss burden you.”