Welcome to the latest instalment of Alexandra Eala’s blog. Aged 15, Alex is already making a big impact at professional events and earlier this year she won her first pro title. She attracts huge attention in her home country and at the 2020 Roland Garros Junior Championships became the first player from the Philippines to reach the semi-finals of a Junior Grand Slam for 35 years. Alex, who this year received an ITF International Junior Player Grant, currently trains at the Rafa Nadal Academy and will be writing regular pieces for the ITF, providing insight into her tennis journey. Follow her progress here.

Everything is good right now. Since my last blog, I had the honour of receiving a wild card entry into the qualifying draw at the Miami Open, while I also competed at W60 Bellinzona – my biggest tournament so far on the ITF World Tennis Tour.

Both events provided great experience for me and there were lots of takeaways from which to learn, especially from my time in Miami, even though I lost to Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova in the opening round of qualifying.

I just tried to absorb and take in as much as I possibly could while I was there. It was a completely new environment and atmosphere for me and it was fantastic to be among top players and to see their work ethic, while to compete among them was a huge opportunity.

I did have mixed feelings about the takeaways, however. On the one hand, seeing all those great players, the likes of Ashleigh Barty, Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova and Jelena Ostapenko humbled me.

On the other hand, it gave me hope and showed me that I can do it and that if I continue working hard then I am on the right path. Put bluntly, I just loved being there and being in that sort of company. I felt comfortable and want more of it.

It was perhaps a little intimidating seeing all the players you grew up idolising but I just loved the whole experience and when I was on court, I didn’t think about any of that. I didn’t make it into a big thing; I just decided to go out there and do my best.

One of the standout moments of the whole week was hitting with 2020 Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek. My coach, Daniel Gomez, knew her from when she came to the Rafa Nadal Academy a few years ago and arranged an hour-long practice session.

I was so, so nervous beforehand but it turned out okay and was amazing. Iga is super nice, super humble and really funny. When you see her in that scenario and in those circumstances, you really don’t see her as a Grand Slam champion.

But, of course, she is and that hour was a tremendous learning experience and really put things into perspective for me. Iga is someone whose past I can relate to and hopefully I am on track to emulate her. I definitely see her as an example to follow.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all the support and good wishes I received from back home – from the Filipino tennis community and my friends and family. So many people stayed up to follow my match and I’m very grateful for that.

I was so pleased with the unbelievable level of support I received from everyone in the Philippines and it really added to my motivation for what was a massive match and tournament for me.

I was also really proud of my attitude on court and I think it was a good match. I was happy to take the first set against Kuzmova, a player who has previously been ranked within the top 50, even though she recovered to win the next two and beat me. It was an important learning experience, as was the entire trip.

In the weeks since returning from Switzerland, where I reached the third round at W60 Bellinzona, I have been back in Manacor at the Academy and undergoing a mini pre-season.

My team and I are still trying to work out the details of my next few tournaments because the situation with regards to Covid-19 has worsened in some of the countries I was planning to go to.

As a result, we’re in the process of making some adjustments. In the meantime, I am working really hard and putting in a lot of time on court, trying to improve and put the learnings of Miami into practice.

To be honest, at the minute I am swamped. As well as the hard work going into my tennis, I am also in the middle of exams, with more coming up in the next few weeks so there is plenty going on.

I study sports science at the Academy and in the last few days I have had physiology and maths exams – I think everything went okay and I did well, but we’ll have to see.

Even with so much going on, I still think it’s important to find time to hang out and have some down time – it’s so nice just to grab something to eat with friends when time allows and not be pre-occupied constantly with other stuff.

As I say, with so many things learnt I really think the last few weeks have been significant in terms of my career development. I will look forward to updating you on further progress soon. I will also let you know how the exams go. Fingers crossed!

Alex featured in the spring 2021 edition of ITFWorld as one of 15 players to receive an International Junior Player Grant from the ITF this year. To read this article, please click here.