On to the next for Alex

MANILA, Philippines — “Mission: Asian Games Gold” turned out to be an unsuccessful endeavor and must have felt like a punch to the gut of tennis darling Alex Eala.

But the strong person and consummate pro that she is, the 21-year-old Eala is already picking herself up from this unfortunate episode in Nagoya, quickly shaking off the blues and raring to go at it again.

After receiving her bronze medal in the 2026 Asiad, the Philippine tennis darling reboots for the next one – the Asian swing of the WTA Tour.

This will bring her to  China for the Wuhan Open slated Oct. 12 to 18 and then back to Japan for the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1 -  a perfect chance to redeem herself on Japanese soil a couple of weeks after her Asiad bust.

Tipped to go all the way to the gold in the Aichi-Nagoya Games and its corresponding ticket to the LA Olympics, the top-seeded Eala was ambushed by Chinese Xiyu Wang in the semis, 3-6. 6-3, 6-2, to settle for a podium finish that’s two notches lower than her target.

“I have no regrets,” said WTA No. 18 Eala of choosing to represent Team Philippines in the quadrennial conclave at the risk of a hefty penalty and lost ranking points for skipping the mandatory WTA1000 event in Beijing.

Giving it all and fighting to the best of her ability made this stint all worth it for the lefty ace.

“At the end of the day, being a professional tennis player and a competitive tennis player, losing is part of the job and losing is always a possibility,” she said.

“That’s what makes tennis so difficult. That’s what makes tennis so exciting – you never know what’s going to happen and you can’t let your guard down. I think that also contributes to my pursuit for excellence and my pursuit for the best version of myself.”

As her second Asiad stint came to the end, Eala has good things to be cheerful about.

She made it to the elite “Time100 NEXT: The World’s Most Influential Rising Stars” even as she inspired the staging of a WTA250 event in Manila next year.

Spanish legend Rafa Nadal himself penned the Time feature on Eala, a proud product of the Mallorca-based tennis academy the 22-time Grand Slam champion founded.

“I’m so incredibly honored, and even more so that Rafa. Rafa himself, I guess, wrote a piece and took the time to do that for me. I’m so incredibly thankful to Time and to Rafa,” Eala said.