Alex Eala came back from a set down against the world No. 3 on Monday and became the first Filipino ever to win a WTA Tour singles title. Four days later she is world No. 20 and still playing in Toronto.

Eala practising at the 2024 US Open. Photo: Hameltion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What just happened:

• She won the Mubadala Citi DC Open, a WTA 500 in Washington, beating top seed Jessica Pegula 4–6, 6–4, 6–0 in a final rain pushed to Monday, August 3. It is the first WTA Tour singles title by any Filipino player.
• She took out the whole top of the draw getting there: Zheng Qinwen, defending champion Leylah Fernandez, second seed Elina Svitolina, third seed Naomi Osaka, then Pegula.
• The list that came out after moved her from No. 28 to No. 20 — 1,666 points to 2,106 — her first time in the top 20.
• That is on top of a Berlin semi-final that went through Elena Rybakina and Svitolina, the Birmingham WTA 125 title, and a Wimbledon fourth round that went through defending champion Iga Świątek. Nine career wins over top-10 players, seven of them this season.
• She is 21, from Quezon City, trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Manacor, and won the 2022 US Open girls' singles — the first Filipino to take a junior Grand Slam singles title.

President Marcos honouring her at Malacañang on July 13, straight after Wimbledon. Photo: Presidential Communications Office, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

And it has not stopped. She had a bye in Toronto and beat Alycia Parks 6–1, 4–6, 6–2 in an hour and fifty-one minutes — no Filipino player, man or woman, had won a main-draw match in Toronto before this week. Next is Caty McNally, who came through this year's Wimbledon champion Linda Nosková to get there; they meet in the third round on Friday night, last on Centre Court after Coco Gauff plays Maria Sakkari. The tournament director there said her opening match had to be moved to Centre Court because she had sold somewhere upwards of 5,000 tickets and the Grandstand seats 2,800 — and the event added Filipino food to its menu halfway through the week. Cincinnati starts August 13, the US Open after that.

What we would like to hear from you:

1. Is the top 20 about right for now, or is a seeded run at the US Open realistic in three weeks?
2. Washington was a fast hard court and so is New York. Does the surface tell us anything, or is a WTA 500 draw simply not a major?
3. What actually changed this year — the serve, the fitness, the head, or just the number of matches at this level?
4. Nine top-10 wins and a title in hand: is she still an underdog story, or is it time to stop framing her as one?
5. Where were you when the Pegula match finished, and did you manage to watch it live?

Home in Manila from the 2021 SEA Games in May 2022, four years before Washington. Photo: Philippine Sports Commission, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ground rules: argue the tennis. No pile-ons about her family, her schooling, or who she does or does not play for. Corrections to the summary above are welcome with a source — the scores and the ranking move fast this month.