Eala and the Filipino OFWS

After Alexandra Eala plays in a major tennis tournament, I have to tell my wife the good news and the bad news, as she cannot stand the suspense of watching the event. In her last match in Qatar, the bad news was that she lost in the first round, but the good news is that she has reach No. 40 in the world women’s tennis ranking. I have watched most of Eala’s matches, especially since she broke below the 100 ranking, after her performance in Miami Open last year, and so did a lot of Filipinos, especially overseas Filipinos. While this column highlights Eala and OFWs, it is really about Eala and the “psyche” of all Filipinos.

The phenomenon of Eala’s rise in the tennis world is not an overnight success. She had been playing tennis for 16 years and the last seven years were a grind. She had played in hundreds of tournaments as a junior tennis player, and hundreds more matches when she turned professional four years ago. From her early training and tournaments in the Metro-Manila tennis courts, she went to the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy in Mallorca, Spain, to be good enough to qualify for the world junior tournaments, win some of them and turn professional with solid win/lose credentials.

By Filipino economic standard, the Eala family is upper middle class, so Eala went to Catholic schools. Her parents are professional working class but were able to send her to the Nadal Academy to chase her dreams. Her determination, hard work, and grit paid off when she won many junior tennis tournaments, culminating with the winning the 2020 Australian Junior Open, and the Girls Singles in the 2022 U.S. Open.

She had a string of first and second round defeats/exits when she turned professional, but surge in ranking after the Miami Open when she defeated Ostapenko, Keys, and Swiatek as a wildcard entry. Suddenly, her world ranking dropped to the high fifties and then to the lower fifties, and became seeded in some of the regional tournaments outside of the Grand Slam tournaments. This was when Filipinos all over the world discovered her and adored her.

Maybe, not so much yet when she played in Hong Kong and China, but when she played in New Zealand, Australia, Abu Dhabi, Manila, and Qatar, the Filipino community in these areas came out to cheer for her, with hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in other parts of the world raptly watching and hoping for her win. The tournament organizers in these foreign countries were aghast, and couldn’t understand the surge of attendance even in the first and second rounds of the tournaments. It seems all Filipino OFWs in these places bought tickets.

Eala’s ascent and triumph in her sport fits perfectly into the Filipino middle class “psyche”, of working hard, persistence, and success. Even limited success, including day-to-day triumphs of ordinary Filipino families are a cause for celebration and pride. So, they always identify themselves and celebrate when Filipinos makes world-class triumphs and success. This is the same when Manny Pacquiao made it in the world boxing arena, but waned when Pacquiao became super-rich and became a politician.

Eala’s personality is also a great factor for the Filipinos’ support and admiration for her. She is a good daughter with a pleasant/warm personality. She is also articulate in Filipino, English, and Spanish without exuding an elitist image. She is pretty and attractive in a very Asian/Filipino way, and comes across as true and real. They way she treats Filipino fans after her matches, win or lose, is truly admirable. She has won the hearts and minds of Filipinos here and abroad and, by any measure, is already a winner.