Alex Eala driving global attention to tennis, says NYT’s Matthew Futterman

Award-winning sports journalist Matthew Futterman, senior writer for The Athletic of The New York Times, has spent decades chronicling the rhythms of global tennis, its rising stars, its quiet struggles, and its rare, almost magical breakthroughs.

Futterman has become known for something deeper: the ability to recognize when a story transcends the game itself.

And in Alex Eala, he sees exactly that.

“I would say it’s been a whirlwind,” Futterman said, reflecting on Eala’s past year. “I just spoke with her this afternoon, and she said it feels like it’s been a very long year. But also it feels like just yesterday she was in Miami, and that’s where she is back right now. She said it just feels great to be back there, and I think it’s really been just a magical year.”

Eala played the Miami Open as a wildcard ranked 140 in 2025. This week, she is seeded and world no. 29.

“To go up 110 places, 111 I guess at this point, is as great a jump as anyone could have hoped for,” Futterman said.

It is, by any standard, extraordinary. But what makes it even more remarkable is how far it has exceeded her own expectations.

“She was just hoping to make the top 100 when she took that wild card in Miami last year,” Futterman said. “To get to the top 30, to be seeded at these tournaments, is just an incredible accomplishment.”

Ranking is more than just a number in tennis; it reshapes the conditions of competition itself.

“The way tennis works, the better you are, the more advantages you get,” he explained. “If you’re seeded in these tournaments, these WTA 1000s, you get a bye into the second round, and you get to practice on better courts, and you get all better court assignments in terms of scheduling [so] it’s really been a magical journey for her.”

Futterman described the rapid climb of Eala and what makes it extremely special in the sport of tennis.

“Well, you don’t really see it from a completely unproven player,” he said. “You see it occasionally. Emma Navarro had a really quick rise and Mboko shot up the rankings last year, and it is possible because there is so much depth in tennis this year, and even in the lower levels, in the ITFs.”

“If a woman starts winning a lot of ITF matches, that’s a signal that she’s coming. We saw that with Lois Boisson. We’ve seen it with Janice Tjen.”

Then comes the distinction that defines Eala’s story. “You didn’t see it so much with Alex. She sort of came out of nowhere.”

And then, the weight of it.

“What makes this so special is that she’s doing it from a country where no one has done this before,” Futterman said.

“The idea that someone from the Philippines could reach this level, that’s a level of belief that she needed to instill in herself,” he said. “If you grew up in America or France or one of the other Grand Slam countries or Spain, you don’t have to make that mental leap. You’ve seen other people from your country do this before.”

“I don’t think you can overestimate the difficulty of that task. And she has not only accomplished it, but she’s embraced it. And she’s, I think, used it as sort of one of her superpowers.”

Even for Futterman, with all his years around the sport, there are no easy answers when it comes to what makes a player capable of achieving the kind of rise Eala has reached.

“I can tell you that it is some strange alchemy of stuff that you’re born with. Great parenting, good coaching, some good results, great athletic gifts so that you can see how hard you’re hitting the ball, you can see how fast you can run as compared with the other people that you’re playing,” he said. “But I think if we knew exactly where that would come from, everybody would go get it, but that’s not how it works.”

“You can’t go to the grocery store and say, I’d like some orange juice and I’d like some mental fortitude. It doesn’t work that way.”

“It’s something that you gain over the years and as you climb up the rankings, you need more and more of it,” he said. “To win a Grand Slam, for instance, which is the goal of every player, you need to convince yourself that you can win a Grand Slam and that’s not an easy thing to do especially if you’ve never done it before.”

Long before the rankings, before the attention, Futterman remembers what first stood out.

“What I was so taken with the first time I saw her play, in addition to her sort of fearlessness, she was taking on Iga Świątek, the dominant player the last few years at this point in time. A former champion in Miami. She was completely fearless in that situation or looked like it.”

He saw it in her strokes which he described to be clean, quick, and effortless.

“She was so solid off both sides, both the forehand and the backhand,” he said. “She seemed to have such quick speed on her swing. I would compare it almost to baseball when they describe a hitter as having a quick bat.”

“She seems to just roll her shots so effortlessly and so quickly and has what people in tennis call easy power. You look at her, you don’t think of her as a big hitter, but she hits a really big ball.”

There is also a completeness to her game that signals something more.

“When she’s standing there at the baseline, she just doesn’t seem to have a lot of weaknesses and she’s not afraid to come in either,” he said. “She likes to creep into the court and finish points as she’s moving forward. That’s great to see and that’s hugely valuable. I know it’s a priority for her to play all-court tennis.”

As her game evolves, Futterman pointed to one area that could unlock another level.

“In terms of what it’s going to take for her to make the next leap, I think for any tennis player, the easiest thing for them to improve or to make really big strides on is their serve because they control the shot from beginning to end,” he explained.

“If you look at her numbers, she’s going to learn or certainly has the ability to learn because she has just terrific hand-eye coordination [on] how to really turn that serve into a weapon. I’m not just talking in terms of velocity but really spot-serving. Both speed and hitting her targets. That’s the area that can make a huge difference for her because she’ll get more free points.”

“It’s so important these days. They’re not free points. You have to hit a big serve in order to get them.”

“Every player wants to have as many free points and as many short points as possible. The more she can have more command of that shot, the bigger the leap she’s going to take in order to keep going.”

Yet even more striking than her technique is her composure, her ability to exist within the moment without being consumed by it.

“I honestly can tell you I have never been watching Alex play and thought, wow, she’s really feeling the pressure right now,” Futterman said. “She doesn’t always win. But I’ve never thought that she’s not winning because all these people are watching and the spotlight is so high everyone’s expecting her to do great.”

Instead, there is joy.

“She just seems to be not feeling the pressure but just enjoying these moments in a way that is so special for a tennis player, a young talent, to feel. This is a game that tortures people,” he said.

Part of that ease, he believes, comes from how she carries her identity as a Filipino athlete on the global stage.

“She has a huge advantage in that because there are Filipinos really, literally everywhere that there is,” he said. “It’s almost like she’s always playing at home. She’s that special that people are planning their days around her. They’re making traveling to see her play as part of their vacation.”

“It’s a destination. It’s a thing to do. I know this because I talked to people in Australia so many of whom had traveled from the Philippines trying to watch her play.”

Futterman shared that kind of connection draws a parallel to Yao Ming and his impact on the National Basketball Association. Eala’s ability to bring people into the sport is rare and transformative.

“All sports dream of someone like this who can cross borders, who can bring countries along,” he emphasized. “She is something new. The news in tennis. The new news in tennis. It’s never been done before. It’s fascinating as part of this larger story that you see of these emerging players.”

And still, beneath all the momentum, there is a grounding perspective that may matter most.

“I think she has a great attitude. She comes back strong after losing. She clearly has just a real love of the game,” he said.

When asked about the pressure of defending ranking points, her response stayed with him.

“I asked her about that. This is the first time you’re going to be defending points like this. She said I don’t think so. I’ve been defending points as long as I’ve been competitive. If I don’t get them here I’ll get them somewhere else down the road.”

“I don’t know if she thought of that this morning or her coach has been telling her that. That is a great attitude to have.”

For a veteran observer like Futterman, it is that mindset that signals something lasting.

“If she stays healthy and that’s a big if because it’s a grind and health and injuries always come into the equation, but if she stays healthy I don’t think she’s going anywhere.”

Futterman said from here on Eala is always a name he encircles when he looks at a women’s tennis draw.

The Filipino pride plays 38-year-old Laura Siegemund (WTA 53) of Germany in her first round R64 match in Miami.