Alexandra Eala, of the Philippines, reacts throughout her match in opposition to Mary Stoiana, of the USA, throughout the first spherical of the U.S. Open tennis championships Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photograph/Adam Starvation)
There was a whole lot of dialogue about Alex Eala on-line—and the discuss her has been so polarizing.
Amid the love and adoration she has been getting, there have been questions, too, about why she will get all the eye, the large courts and much more perks than the many-time Grand Slam champions on the ladies’s tour.
The postmatch convention after she disposed of Mary Stoiana in straight units, 6-1, 6-2, in her first match on the US Open in Flushing Meadows, New York, offered a clue—the identical one which has marked her interactions with sports activities journalists.
Numerous the questions she was requested have been about Alex Eala the particular person.
“I’m consistently making an attempt to be a greater particular person, a extra clever, extra conscious particular person,” she mentioned on Wednesday (Manila time) after her victory.
“And yeah, [I’m trying to] be the very best model of myself,” added the Filipino star when requested about being an idol for lots of younger ladies. “And I don’t assume my tennis can be nearly as good as it’s now if I wasn’t the individual that I’m off the court docket and I wasn’t as open-minded or, you recognize, wanting to study. So I feel these two go hand in hand.”
Positive, Eala fielded questions on her tennis. Early on, she mentioned her service sport in opposition to Stoiana.
“[L]ike I’ve been saying, the serve is only a fixed effort … it’s fixed work and making an attempt to enhance,” she mentioned concerning the one side of her sport that all the time comes underneath intense scrutiny. “I’m all the time making an attempt to enhance one thing. So I’m proud of how I served at present. Hopefully, hopefully we’re going up or sustaining the extent within the subsequent couple of matches.”
She additionally talked briefly about her subsequent opponent, Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine, who beat her on clay throughout their first assembly final Might within the Strasbourg Open in France.
“There are a whole lot of issues that I may have achieved higher [against her],” the world No. 18 mentioned. “I feel I’ve developed lots in these months. So yeah, all I can do is go into that match with the identical mindset as at present … and even higher than the mindset I’ve been having these previous couple of weeks, and attempt to do my finest.”
However even because the tennis speak continued, there was a palpable effort by journalists to peel away the layers of Eala’s mystique in an effort to search out what precisely makes her click on amongst her followers and the way she handles the speedy rise of her reputation. “I’m nonetheless so younger, so I’ve a lot to study on the subject of managing, you recognize, there’s a lot I really feel I’m going to expertise and so many challenges I’ve but to come across,” mentioned the 21-year-old ace. “I don’t know, it seems like simply yesterday that I used to be dreaming to be on [the Louis] Armstrong [Stadium], for instance, or dreaming to play in opposition to the gamers that I’ve been enjoying in opposition to.”
“I simply assume it might be such a disgrace if I didn’t do my finest to get pleasure from.”
Eala returns to the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Heart on Thursday for her second match, the place she is predicted to have one other sturdy crowd assist as she did in opposition to Stoiana.
And Eala won’t ever get uninterested in basking within the love she is proven, it doesn’t matter what opinions folks have on-line.
