NOW COMES THE HARD PART

The historic rise of Alex Eala came to a halt when she was stopped by Italy's Jasmine Paolini in the Round of 16.

And while yeah, this is a reality check for her and her fans, I'm not worried about her climb one bit.

In fact, I received this card from eBay a couple of days ago. It's just a 2025 Alex Eala Topps blue cracked ice card that's worth around $15 to $20, but I wanted a budget-friendly version that's a step above the base card and somewhere in between the numbered parallels.

I also like this card because it gives off the impression that she's hell-bent on firing the ball right back at her opponent. I normally don't like horizontal cards, but this one works. I can almost imagine her letting out a grunt as she launches an energy-charged tennis ball to the other side of the court.

Even if you take away the fact that she's Filipino, she's still easy to root for because of her smashmouth style of play.

Of course, her nationality is also one of the reasons why I watch the highlights of her matches. I can sit through her matches on weekends, but it's hard to stare at all that green on the screen while I'm scripting TV plugs.

I did pick up both the base and refractor versions of her rookie card on COMC. The base card was just over $10, while the refractor was around $25. I'm still contemplating whether or not to buy her autograph card because my wallet has been begging me to stop browsing online stores and card marketplaces.

Give me a couple of days.

Haha.

Anyway, I also purposely delayed publishing this blog to better accentuate what it's really all about.

I'm not saying the hype surrounding Alex Eala has come and gone. Yes, her Wimbledon 2026 campaign is already over, but I really hope this serves as the opening statement of what should be a stellar career.

Yes, it feels like Alex Eala's win over defending champion Iga Swiatek was blown out of proportion because she still has a long way to go...

... and that's alright.

As cool as an underdog story is, it eventually has to stop. I mean, can you imagine Manny Pacquiao having the same underdog narrative every time he entered the ring? Yes, right now, he's an almost 50-year-old boxer fighting opponents who are much younger than him, but he has already proven that he can still beat fighters who never faced the kind of competition he did during the prime of his career.

The same has to happen with Alex Eala.

The most important thing for Alex Eala is to naturally gain experience, as EJ Obiena did on his journey to regularly competing against Mondo Duplantis. That way, every big opportunity will become routine for her, and she won't always enter tournaments as the underdog.

That said, there is something she needs to look into.

Again, I don't know much about tennis because I never really bothered watching the sport. And again, I need to say this: the sport's scoring system is boring, you need the proper equipment to play it, and it isn't something you can just play anywhere.

Can you imagine playing tennis in front of your house on an uneven street where you have to bounce the ball before hitting it and have someone judge whether it's in or out?

I don't think so.

There are two problems with Alex Eala's rise. The first is how the media has overhyped her, and the second is the reaction of some tennis enthusiasts toward her.

Again, Eala is a star on the rise. That said, we can't really call her a prodigy because there have been other tennis stars who won major titles while they were still teenagers. Furthermore, because many tennis stars tend to see their level decline before they reach 30, she has to make the most of every opportunity.

Martina Hingis first retired when she was 27, while Maria Sharapova retired at 33 after spending much of the latter part of her career dealing with injuries as well as a suspension. Anna Kournikova, one of the most popular tennis players of her generation, retired when she was just 22. Some would say she retired too young, but she also started her professional career at 14.

The unfortunate part of Alex Eala's rise is that the media exploited our Pinoy pride, which basically means every Filipino feels proud of her accomplishments.

In the process, it made some tennis fans from other countries dislike her.

And this brings me to another aspect of her game that I don't really want to delve into, because it involves discussions of her serve, her power, her weight training, and how her basic game plan is to react to situations rather than dictate the pace.

Again, I don't know enough about tennis to be the right person to talk about those things.

All I know is that she's receiving this flak because the media is portraying her as if she's already at the pinnacle of the sport. Because of that, there's unnecessary pressure on her.

I saw how emotionally invested she was after beating Iga Swiatek. The way she cried reminded me of Victor Wembanyama when the San Antonio Spurs won the Western Conference title. Yes, just like Alex, he's carrying his country's pride on his shoulders, and much like Alex, his rise is a big deal. That said, guys like Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley thought he celebrated too much because it wasn't like he had already won the NBA championship.

It's the same thing with Alex Eala.

Now that her Wimbledon 2026 campaign is over, she's coming back down to earth, and I think this should serve as fuel for her. She needs to normalize her success in tournaments and eventually get rid of the underdog label. She has to continue working on her game and make sure she stays on that stage for a long time.

Also, and I don't really think this is much of her problem, she needs to continue building good relationships with the other competitors. I know she can do that, but I don't know if all the media hype will do her any favors.

Again, normalizing her success in tournaments is the way to go. I really hope we, as fans, can help her with that. I get that we all love Alex, but sometimes, especially in a sport where she's on her own and needs to maintain good relationships with her peers, I think she should have less pressure so she can keep setting records instead of feeling like she has to live up to impossible expectations every single time.