Alex Eala\u2019s coach has admitted that the team \u2018never thought\u2019 the young star would receive the overwhelming support she currently enjoys, revealing that Filipino fans are following her across North America.<\/p>\n
The Filipina has produced a remarkable 2026 season so far, rising to a new career-high ranking of world No 18 after starting the year at No 50.<\/p>\n
Recently, she won her maiden WTA Tour singles title at the Washington Open, beating American Jessica Pegula in the final to become the first player from the Philippines to win a WTA singles title.<\/p>\n
Just a few weeks earlier, Eala<\/a> became the first player from her country to reach the second week of a Grand Slam, doing so at Wimbledon after defeating defending champion Iga Swiatek.<\/p>\n Her SW19 campaign helped her win the WTA\u2019s Star of the Grass-Court Swing award, while she also won the WTA 125 title in Birmingham and reached the semi-finals in Berlin.<\/p>\n In 2026 alone, she has recorded six victories over players ranked inside the world\u2019s top 10.<\/p>\n While Eala\u2019s impressive results and rapid rise up the rankings may have come as a surprise to many, Bosch \u2013 who has helped develop the star since 2023 \u2013 firmly believed that the Filipina could make a significant breakthrough during the most recent pre-season and early tournaments.<\/p>\n Jannik Sinner\u2019s US Open withdrawal branded a \u2018shock\u2019 as Annabel Croft makes worrying assessment<\/a><\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s confirmed schedule for the rest of 2026 ahead of his US Open return<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe were positive because she had a good pre-season and I was super happy with the way that she played in New Zealand,\u201d Bosch analysed.<\/p>\n \u201cShe beat [Donna] Vekic, [Petra] Marcinko and [Magda] Linette and made the semi-finals, with a good level. The way that she played, I was super happy with. And I have to say that I was still watching many things that we could improve.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never know what the limit is that you can achieve, but I thought if we could do the same level as last year, we would be lucky with the weeks, because it is not the same playing well at a small tournament as at a big tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I told the team because I work also with another coach Sandro and a fitness coach in Luke, and in the meetings I always told them that if we do well, in some specific weeks we can have a better run than 50.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were top 50 at that moment and it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n Most recently, she reached the fourth round in Toronto before losing to Belinda Bencic, before bowing out to ninth seed Amanda Anisimova in a tight three-set third-round clash at the Cincinnati Open.<\/p>\n Amid her impressive results, Eala has also had to perform under immense pressure, with the majority of her matches and practice sessions attracting large crowds, alongside considerable attention from the media.<\/p>\n Indeed, she received 89% of the fan vote for the WTA\u2019s Star of the Swing award following the grass-court season.<\/p>\n However, the extent of the support Eala has received has even surprised her own team.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could never think this would be like this,\u201d added Bosch.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are super happy with the way that the Filipino community and fans are. Everywhere we go, they are there. This morning on the plane, we found a few Filipinos; they went from Washington to see Alex in Toronto again.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so nice to see how they really believe in her and how they have this passion on the court when she is playing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe court in Toronto was full every day when she was playing. For us, it is even sometimes scary, because it\u2019s tough to always have the best level.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a tough week for Alex because she won Washington, she played the final on Monday, and we just travelled on Tuesday. It was not easy to handle. I am happy that she could do a good two matches in the first two matches.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT:\u00a0<\/span>Novak Djokovic lifts lid on \u2018bitterness\u2019 he felt at Australian Open \u2013 and it wasn\u2019t the deportation scandal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Alex Eala\u2019s coach makes candid admission after Filipina star\u2019s remarkable rise<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alex Eala\u2019s coach has admitted that the team \u2018never thought\u2019 the young star would receive the overwhelming support she currently enjoys, revealing that Filipino fans are following her across North America. The Filipina has produced a remarkable 2026 season so far, rising to a new career-high ranking of world No 18 after starting the year […]<\/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-2675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675","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=2675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h2>\n