Alexandra Eala is the shining light of Filipino tennis and continues to make history wherever she goes.
This is a burden she carries with great pride, with it helping to uplift rather than weigh her down.
Some would crumble under the expectation of an entire nation, but Eala relishes her country’s reliance on her.
And, given her form throughout 2025, it feels like a huge breakthrough could be just around the corner.
Her US Open draw has been rather unkind, but there’s no reason why New York could not be the site of her greatest triumph yet.
Why Alexandra Eala could cause an upset at the US Open this year
Expecting this 20-year-old to cruise her way to the title is far from likely, but should she bypass her tough first-round opponent, there’s no reason why she cannot go deep.
However, Clara Tauson does pose an unruly threat, with the Danish tennis star coming off the back of a semi-final run in Montreal.
If she were to overcome the 14th seed, one of Cristina Busca or Claire Liu awaits, which should represent a far easier task on paper.
Stranger things have happened at the US Open though, which is a tournament notorious for its upset and surprise winners. This is all without mentioning how hard this young superstar pushed Barbora Krejcikova, the reigning champion, in the first round of Wimbledon.
And, despite having enjoyed a breakthrough grass-court season earlier in the year, the statistics still suggest that these hard courts remain Alexandra Eala’s favoured surface.
Alexandra Eala’s record on hard courts
In fact, there is actually no other surface on which her win rate on hard is equal to, having won just shy of 67% of the matches played on it.
Her win record on grass sits at an equally impressive 64%, whilst she is still very much learning how to deal with the clay, and therefore her win rate sits at 43.9%.
This year, she has won far more (12) than she has lost (six), and the best run of her career, aside from reaching the Eastbourne final, came on the hard courts of Miami.
There, she beat Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek on her way to the semi-final.
Eala has a history of thriving on American hard courts, and should she topple Tauson, the draw could open up nicely to allow the Filipina to shock everyone and go deep at the US Open.
The first real top seed she could face is Aryna Sabalenka, and that would only be in the fourth round.
If she had reached that stage, she would have made so much history for her country, and reinforced her quality on the WTA tour once again.
