Alex Eala Is Defying Her Country’s Odds to Make French Open History

Alex Eala will make history Sunday at the French Open as the first woman from the Philippines to compete in the singles main draw of a Grand Slam.

Eala, who turned 20 on Friday, broke through at the Miami Open in April with a semifinals finish after beating three former Grand Slam champions, including then–world No. 2 Iga Świątek. She took home a $332,160 prize that nearly doubled her career earnings, and has since shot up 71 places in the world rankings, climbing from No. 140 to No. 69. She will face Colombia’s Emiliana Arango in the first round Sunday at Roland-Garros.

While Eala has been embraced by her home country, her success highlights the difficulties for elite athletes from the Southeast Asian nation who have long struggled to find government support. In 2025, the budget of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is about $23.3 million (P1.3 billion)—just a little more than the $20 million NIL budget of Ohio State football last season.

“The problem the athletes have today is the same that we had before,” Raymond Suarez, who represented the Philippines in the Davis Cup in the ’80s, tells Front Office Sports. “Wala tayo masyadong court, walang equipment, walang sponsor. (There weren’t many courts, equipment, or sponsors.) You have to rely on your own private family sponsorship.”

Fortunately for Eala, her family had “the means” to help support her international lifestyle, her uncle, Noli Eala, tells Front Office Sports. She received a coveted scholarship to attend the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain when she was 13 years old, but her family also knew that investing in her potential pro career would require additional financial support.

“[Alex’s dad] was asking me about how to look for funding,” says Noli Eala, who is also the former chairman of the PSC.

He added that private sector funding is the best avenue for Philippine athletes looking to sustain themselves. But it’s often hard for many to find backers.

“Very few companies really have the resources to spare to throw away for athletes who they don’t know whether we’ll win or not,” Noli Eala says.

Alex had a head start in receiving private backing, as her mother is the former CFO of Globe, one of the giant telecommunications companies in the Philippines.

She’s been sponsored by Globe since she was 8, according to Tennis365. Their brand logo along with Bank of the Philippine Islands, which shares the same parent company as Globe, can be seen patched onto Eala’s tennis top. She also has sponsorships from Nike and Babolat. 

The biggest help is Eala’s on-court success, most notably in September 2022, when she won the US Open juniors championship, becoming the first Filipino to ever win a Junior Grand Slam singles title.

But not every successful Filipino athlete has received support like Eala—which has led several of the country’s best to switch representation.

Chess grandmaster Wesley So, who was born in the Philippines, began representing the U.S. in 2014 when he moved to Minnesota with his adoptive parents. So, who is currently ranked No. 11 in the world, became an official U.S. citizen in 2021, and said he had a “better chance” of making it in the U.S. than anywhere else.

“That does not mean I don’t love the Philippines. I have good memories from there. But I did not have the connections needed to succeed in that culture. I was from the province, not a city boy. Had no money, etcetera I wanted to go further, and there was only one country [where] a nobody [could] make it. The USA!” So said.

Two-time US Open women’s golf champion Yuka Saso changed her representation from the Philippines to Japan in 2022. Saso, who was born in the Philippines to a Japanese father and Filipino mother, has won one US Open representing each country.

World No. 4 men’s pole vaulter EJ Obiena has admitted to receiving offers from other countries—acknowledging it may be a financial help—but has declined.

“I will never abandon my nation because of money. That’s not my loyalty, at least not how I define it,” Obiena said in 2021.

Despite the funding issues, the Philippines has seen its most international sports success in recent years, and not only because of Eala. Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz won the country’s first  Olympic gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the Philippines women’s national football team qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 2023, and gymnast Carlos Yulo added two more Olympic golds during the Paris Games last year.

(Yulo and the Philippines made headlines following his Olympic success due to some outrageous prizes companies offered him, including a lifetime supply of ramen and free colonoscopies.)

Given Eala’s early success—and the fact that a first-round win will bring her even closer to $1 million in earnings—she may not have to consider representing another country. But there are still other unique hurdles for Filipino citizens, who need to apply for visas to travel to more than 150 countries around the world, including the U.S. and the European Union.

“What’s challenging is being able to travel flexibly. I find challenging the visas, being able to plan because as a tennis player, you need to be very flexible with your schedule, you’re going to make a lot of last-minute choices,” said Eala at a virtual press conference in April.