The President of the Philippines has hailed Alexandra Eala as a \u2018real inspiration\u2019 for the nation, particularly its young people, insisting that \u2018this is just the beginning\u2019 for the 21-year-old star.<\/p>\n
Eala<\/a> became the first player from the Philippines to reach the second week of a Grand Slam after stunning defending champion Iga Swiatek 7-6(9), 6-2 to book her place in the Wimbledon fourth round.<\/p>\n The world No 32 recovered from an early break and edged a dramatic first-set tiebreak before dominating the six-time Grand Slam champion in the second set.<\/p>\n Eala will next face Jasmine Paolini after the Italian defeated Greece\u2019s Maria Sakkari to reach the last 16.<\/p>\n The Filipina won their only previous meeting, beating Paolini 6-1, 7-6(5) at the WTA 1000 event in Dubai earlier this season.<\/p>\n \u201cShe is becoming a real inspiration, especially for the youth \u2013 for the Filipino youth,\u201d the President commented during a recent press briefing in Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cWe now have a player \u2013 a woman, at least \u2013 who has reached the third round at Wimbledon; it is an extraordinary achievement, truly world-class. It is amazing.<\/p>\n \u201cRemember when she started winning? I keep saying, \u2018This is just the beginning.\u2019 She is just starting. And, as you can see, I was right: she is just starting.<\/p>\n \u201cOur young prospect still has a lot to offer. This is truly great news. I watched the last set this morning, and it was\u2026 a great result. A wonderful result.<\/p>\n \u201cCongratulations Alex. Keep going. We are all behind you,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n \u201cThe entire Filipino nation is rooting for you; we know you are fighting hard, filling us with pride, and bringing prestige and honour to the Philippines.<\/p>\n \u201cKeep going, keep going, keep going! We are behind you. Well done.\u201d<\/p>\n Alexander Zverev snubbed as tennis expert names favourite to reach Wimbledon final<\/a><\/p>\n Rafael Nadal disagrees with Djokovic over Grand Slam prize money debate<\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n Shortly after her landmark victory over Swiatek, Eala was asked what it means to have become an inspiration to thousands of people in her home country.<\/p>\n \u201cHeavy question,\u201d the 21-year-old replied.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you got me speechless there. It\u2019s an honour to be able to pave the way for young girls.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be the honour of my life to be able to inspire others. I think inspiration is such a beautiful thing.<\/p>\n \u201cThen again, I want to remind anybody that you can take inspiration from anywhere you want. Anywhere, anyone, if you want to be inspired, and if you\u2019re inspired by it, it will just come to you.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to be as authentic as I can. I believe in being genuine. I believe in my values.<\/p>\n \u201cThis exposure I guess or this platform that I have has really allowed me to self-reflect. It allows me to become the best version of myself, because I know that a lot of people look up to me.<\/p>\n \u201cThen again, I think the main message here is that I don\u2019t want them to look at me and say, I want to be the next Alex Eala. I want them to look at me and say, \u2018wow, I want to be the first me. I want to make my own path.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The post Philippines President hails Alexandra Eala as \u2018real inspiration\u2019 after historic Wimbledon run<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The President of the Philippines has hailed Alexandra Eala as a \u2018real inspiration\u2019 for the nation, particularly its young people, insisting that \u2018this is just the beginning\u2019 for the 21-year-old star. Eala became the first player from the Philippines to reach the second week of a Grand Slam after stunning defending champion Iga Swiatek 7-6(9), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Latest Wimbledon News<\/h2>\n