SEA Games 2025: Philippines’ rising tennis star Alexandra Eala wins women’s singles gold

SINGAPORE – The tears flowed freely as Alexandra Eala embraced her parents at the National Tennis Development Center in Nonthaburi on Dec 18, after she won the women’s singles title at the SEA Games by beating home favourite Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-1, 6-2.

The victory earned Eala her first gold medal at the regional meet, producing a fairy-tale end to what has been a breakthrough year for the 20-year-old.

In the process, she also ended the Philippines’ 26-year wait for a title in the event and became her country’s third women’s singles champion at the biennial competition, behind compatriots Pia Tamayo (1981) and Maricris Fernandez (1999).

Speaking to the media after the final, she said: “To end the year on this high is such an amazing thing that I would not have imagined would’ve happened at the start of the year.”

It has been quite the year for the world No. 53.

In March, she became the first wild card in history to beat three Major champions (Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek) in straight sets at a single WTA event, en route to the Miami Open semi-finals.

She also became the first player from the Philippines to win a Grand Slam singles match at the US Open in August and cracked the top 50 in the world rankings in November.

While she has played on the sport’s biggest stage, Eala, who captured her maiden WTA title in September with her win at the Guadalajara 125 Open in September, had also set her sights on a first SEA Games gold.

At the Hanoi SEA Games in 2022, she clinched three bronzes, including one in the women’s singles after losing to Thailand’s eventual champion Luksika Kumkhum in the semi-finals.

In Thailand, she finished with bronzes in the women’s team and mixed doubles events, and looked to be the favourite in the singles competition, where she was the highest-ranked player.

And she lived up to her billing as the top seed, not dropping a single set throughout the women’s singles event.

After receiving a bye in the round of 16, she beat Malaysia’s Shihomi Li 6-3, 6-1 in the quarter-finals, before dispatching Thailand’s Thasaporn Naklo 6-1, 6-4 in the last four to book her berth in the decider.

On Dec 18, even as the home crowd backed Mananchaya, Eala had her own pocket of fans cheering for her and she conjured a dominant display over her world No. 240 opponent to cement her status as South-east Asia’s top player.

The Quezon City native said: “This (the SEA Games) is a whole other category. Playing for the country you have written on your back and these sort of team events bring a different kind of pressure.

“I’m so happy about how I handled it and my performance on court.”

Her success in sport may have its roots in family – her mother Rizza Maniego is a former swimmer who won a women’s 100m backstroke bronze at the 1985 SEA Games, which were also in Bangkok.

Even without having won gold herself, Maniego, who briefly wore the medal after her daughter placed it around her neck, would have understood the magnitude of Eala’s achievement.

Eala said: “We (the Philippines) are very family oriented. That’s a part of our culture and the SEA Games is very different from the (WTA) Tour – it’s very personal to us, to the South-east Asian countries.

“It’s special in that way. It’s unique, it doesn’t happen every time.”