What Alex Eala had to say about historic Wimbledon win and Filipino support
Alex Eala added another “first” to her list of achievements as she continued her good momentum on grass with a first-round victory at Wimbledon.
Last year, Eala made history as she became the first Filipino to win a main draw match at a Grand Slam after claiming an opening-round win at the US Open in September and now she has followed it up with her second win at a major.
Having lost in the first round on her debut at the All England Club in 2025, the 21-year-old tasted success at the second time of asking with a confident 6-1, 6-2 win over Renata Zarazua to become the first Filipino player to win a main draw singles match at Wimbledon.
“It had its moments. No match is going to be easy here. I showed a really good level of tennis and played the important points well,” Eala said.
“I’m very happy with my first round. I think that I played really well and kept the intensity throughout the whole match so I’m hoping to keep this momentum going throughout the week.”
Wimbledon News
Iga Swiatek makes emotional statement after Wimbledon win brings her to tears
Coco Gauff reveals the change she’s trying to convince the WTA Tour to make
The Filipina is coming off an excellent Wimbledon warm-up campaign as she won the WTA 125K Birmingham Open at the start of June and also reached the semi-final of the Berlin Open, taking out world No 2 Elena Rybakina in the round of 16 and world No 7 Elina Svitolina in the quarter-final.
That run pushed her back into the top 32 of the WTA Rankings and earned her a seed at Wimbledon, which was crucial in terms of avoiding the big-name players in the opening few rounds.
Her opening win helped her to move up one spot in the Live Rankings to No 31, but she could surge higher if she wins another couple of matches at SW19.
The 29th seed was no doubt expecting to face the great Serena Williams in the second round following the former world No 1’s much-publicised return to tennis, but the American’s comeback was ended by Maya Joint with the Australian winning in three sets.
One thing is certain, the court will be packed with Filipinos as they have once again turned up in their droves to support Eala.
“I was really surprised. Well the Filipinos keep surprising me in good ways,” she said.
“I know how notoriously difficult it is to get tickets to this event so to have what I would call a full house of almost Filipinos is amazing. I never would have thought that at Wimbledon I would have like a home crowd so super thankful and I really enjoyed that.”
