Alex Eala wears the NIKE Pleated Track Suit and NIKE Air Superfly shoes. Photographed by Mark Nicdao
Coming from a breakout season, Eala moves through the year with quiet momentum and a growing sense of who she’s becoming
Fifteen years into tennis, and Alex Eala still can’t see herself doing anything else. “I’ve been working for so long in the past few years, and it feels like a breath of fresh air to be at this level,” she says, smiling. During her interview with Vogue Philippines, she was calm and composed, just as she’s been in her post-match speeches throughout the tennis season, sometimes speaking through tears, cracking a joke in between, sometimes said in Filipino or Spanish, always with quiet clarity. “Obviously, with those breakthroughs,” she continues.
Breakthroughs, plural. In the first half of 2025 alone, the Filipino tennis player rose from the World No. 140 to a career high of No. 64, became the first Filipino to reach the semifinals of a WTA 1000 tournament, and made her Grand Slam main draw debuts at the French Open in Roland-Garros and Wimbledon. Along the way, she beat players ranked in the world’s top 10, including Iga Świątek.
That discipline also surfaced even during her second shoot with the magazine. Between takes, 20-year-old Eala moved as if back on court, shifting into movement with quick steps, slow pivots, the angle of a serve even without a racket. None of it was planned. It was all instinct.
In the second look of the day, deputy editor Pam Quiñones dressed her in a white pinstripe suit. Her father, Michael, quietly observing behind photographer Mark Nicdao, suggested her signature serve pose, a nod to the swoosh emblematic of the sports brand.
By the third look in gray woven trousers, Nike Air Superfly sneakers, and a Nike By You tee featuring the sampaguita, Eala, arriving on set, smiled more than usual. Her dad noticed first. “You know she likes what she’s wearing. She’s smiling, oh,” he says with a chuckle to beauty editor Joyce Oreña and Nike Philippines team. The tee, featuring a blooming sampaguita by Manila-based artist Georgina Camus, was set against a green tennis court, along with the hair tie (the only one of its kind) gifted to her during her Wimbledon debut. It reflected something personal: it had become a wearable reminder of home.
When asked about her journey so far, Eala doesn’t separate personal achievement from collective effort. “I’m so proud of myself and what I’ve accomplished. I’m [also] proud and grateful [to] the team and all the effort that they’ve put in. I’m just happy that, you know, they see results and that I can share this happiness with them also.”
Still, she isn’t settling into the moment for long. “I would say that I’m hungry,” she says. “It’s made me feel hungry to do even more and to work even harder.” The next two to three months are already mapped out with stops at the National Bank Open, Cincinnati Open, Monterrey Open, and another run at the US Open.
Her drive is also balanced by a perspective shaped through years of competition. “Tennis is such a beautiful sport because it really keeps you grounded. You lose—you really learn to lose—because you lose almost every week,” she says candidly. “And that’s what I’ve learned: there’s always going to be someone better than you. And what I try to do is just be the best version of myself.”
Eala’s recent wins have made her more visble, with some of her post-event moments becoming viral, injecting a little humor from time to time. After her Miami Open run, she soundtracked her latest achievement with a trending Instagram audio, a nod to her “Cinderella run” to the quarterfinals. Aware that she often represents the Philippines wherever she goes, she says, “I like to emulate the best of us Filipinos.”
It’s also a responsibility she carries with intention. “You just want to be a good person,” she says. For the World No. 64, the only Filipino to make it to that list, that remains just as important as anything she achieves on the court.
For more information, visit Nike’s official website.
Photographed by Mark Nicdao, fashion direction and styling by Pam Quiñones, stylist’s assistant Renee de Guzman and Claire Fernando of Qurator Studio, beauty direction by Joyce Oreña, makeup by Angeline dela Cruz, hair by Cherry Reyes, produced by Julian Rodriguez and Esab Raymundo, project implemented by Erika Palacios, account manager Yassi Centeno, multimedia artist Lara Castañeda, written by Christina Zabat
