Eala should not pass up Asiad shot

MANILA, Philippines — With the 2026 Asian Games fast approaching, the tournament should be more than just another event for Alex Eala – it is a shot at immortality she cannot afford to miss.

Tennis in the 20th Asiad is set Sept. 27 to Oct. 3 at the Nagoya City Higashiyama Park Tennis Center – right in the middle of the WTA Asian swing.

It presents a serious balancing act for Eala, who will be coming off the season’s final Grand Slam, the US Open in New York set Aug. 30 to Sept. 13.

The Asiad dates directly clash with three key WTA events – the Singapore Open (Sept. 21-27), the Korea Open (Sept. 21-27) and the China Open (Sept. 30-Oct. 11).

But for Eala, the Asiad offers what no tour event can: a gold medal for the country and an automatic spot to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

She has an unfinished business on the Asian stage. In the 2023 Hangzhou Games, Eala lost in the semifinals of both the ladies singles and the mixed doubles with Francis Alcantara, settling for two bronze medals.

Those bronzes ended the Philippines’ long medal drought in Asian Games tennis, but the ultimate prize remains.

And the conditions in Aichi-Nagoya suit her perfectly.

The Asiad tennis will be played on an outdoor hard court at Higashiyama Park – Eala’s preferred surface, where she crafted a historic seven-match winning streak that delivered her first WTA Tour title at the Mubadala DC Open and lifted her to a Top 20 world ranking.

She arrived in Hangzhou as a promising junior. She will set foot in Nagoya as a WTA champion.