This Alex Eala biography follows Alexandra Maniego Eala from a sporting household in Quezon City to the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca and the top 20 of the WTA rankings. Born on 23 May 2005, she is 21 years old and, as of 8 October 2026, ranked No. 18 in the world – the highest position ever held by a Filipino player. Below you find her age, height and family background, her junior years and the seasons that turned her into the best tennis player the Philippines has produced.
Alex Eala biography at a glance: age, height and key data
Alex Eala's age is 21: she was born on 23 May 2005 in Quezon City, Metro Manila. Alex Eala's height is 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in). She plays left-handed with a two-handed backhand, and her WTA biography names hard courts as her preferred surface. She turned professional in 2020, at 14, on the ITF circuit.
Her current coach, according to the WTA, is Joan Bosch of the Rafa Nadal Academy. She has won one WTA Tour title, two WTA 125 titles and five ITF singles titles, and her official career prize money stands at US$3,354,035 (as of 8 October 2026). The table sums up the essentials; her week-by-week position is on the page about Alex Eala's WTA ranking.
| Full name | Alexandra Maniego Eala |
|---|---|
| Known as | Alex Eala |
| Born | 23 May 2005, Quezon City, Philippines |
| Age | 21 (born 23 May 2005) |
| Nationality | Filipino |
| Height | 1.75 m (5' 9") |
| Plays | Left-handed, two-handed backhand |
| Academy | Rafa Nadal Academy, Manacor (Mallorca), since 2018 |
| Coach | Joan Bosch |
| Turned pro | 2020 |
| WTA ranking | No. 18 (2,276 points, list of 28 Sep 2026) |
| Career high | No. 18 (24 Aug 2026) |
| Titles | 1 WTA Tour, 2 WTA 125, 5 ITF (singles) |
| Prize money | $3,354,035 career (WTA) |
| Languages | Filipino, English, Spanish |
As of 8 Oct 2026.
Alex Eala's family: a household of athletes
Sport runs through the Eala family on both sides. Her parents, her brother and her grandfather all played a part in how she found tennis, and several relatives held prominent roles in Philippine sport.
Alex Eala's parents: Rizza Maniego-Eala and Mike Eala
Her mother, Rizza (Rosemarie) Maniego-Eala, was a Philippine national swimmer who won bronze in the 100 m backstroke at the 1985 SEA Games in Bangkok. She is sometimes described as an Olympian, but no record of Olympic participation has been found. Away from the pool, she later served as chief financial officer of Globe Telecom from 2015 to 2024. Her father, Michael "Mike" Eala, is a business executive.
Brother Miko, her first coach and the wider family
Her brother, Michael Francis "Miko" Eala, also took up tennis and played college tennis for Penn State from 2020 to 2024. Her first coach was her maternal grandfather, Roberto Maniego, who introduced her to the game at the age of four. Her uncles include Noli Eala, a former chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission and ex-commissioner of the PBA, and fashion designer Rhett Eala.
Junior years: from Little Mo to Les Petits As
Eala started winning abroad early. In 2013 she took the under-8 title at the Little Mo International in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and in 2015 she won the under-11 Dubrovnik Dub Bowl in Croatia. In 2017 she was named Tennis Europe Doubles Player of the Year together with Indonesia's Priska Nugroho.
The decisive result came in January 2018 at Les Petits As, the 14-and-under tournament in Tarbes, France. Playing on a wildcard, she beat Linda Noskova 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(5) in the final and became the first wildcard champion in the tournament's history. That title earned her a scholarship at the Rafa Nadal Academy.
On the ITF junior tour she won the girls' doubles at the Australian Open 2020 (with Nugroho) and at Roland Garros 2021 (with Oksana Selekhmeteva), reached a career-high junior ranking of No. 2 in October 2020 and crowned her junior career at the US Open 2022. Seeded 10th, she won six matches without dropping a set and beat Lucie Havlickova 6-2, 6-4 in the final – the first junior Grand Slam singles title for a Filipino. The full list is on our page about Alex Eala at the Grand Slams.
Life at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca
Eala has trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Manacor, Mallorca, since 2018. She completed the academy's high-school programme in 2023 and continues to train there. In April 2026 she said she had lived in Spain for almost eight years – long enough to give interviews in Spanish at the Madrid Open 2026. The WTA does not publish an official place of residence for her.
Several coaches from the academy have shaped her game. According to the coaching history compiled on Wikipedia, Daniel Gomez worked with her during her formative years, Alexandro "Sandro" Viaene was her main coach ahead of the 2025 season, Toni Nadal joined her team around the Miami Open 2025, and fitness coach Lluc Bauza is part of the set-up. The WTA lists Joan Bosch as her current coach.
Turning pro: the ITF years from 2020 to 2024
Eala played her first professional event in March 2020 at an ITF W15 in Monastir, Tunisia, and received her first WTA singles ranking, No. 1180, on 30 November 2020. In January 2021 she won her first ITF title at the W15 in Manacor, beating Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. In August 2021 at the Winners Open in Cluj-Napoca she became the first Filipino to win a WTA tour-level main-draw match.
The following seasons were a steady climb: ITF titles in Chiang Rai (2022), Yecla and Roehampton (2023) and the W100 in Vitoria-Gasteiz (2024). She also represented the Philippines, winning three bronze medals at the 2021 SEA Games (held in Vietnam in May 2022) and singles and mixed-doubles bronze at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023. Her year-end ranking improved from No. 529 in 2021 to No. 158 in 2024.
The 2025 breakthrough season
In March 2025, ranked No. 140 and playing on a wildcard, Eala reached the semifinals of the WTA 1000 Miami Open. She beat Jelena Ostapenko, world No. 5 Madison Keys and world No. 2 Iga Swiatek before losing to Jessica Pegula 6-7(3), 7-5, 3-6. The run lifted her to No. 75 on 31 March 2025 – the first time a Filipino entered the WTA top 100.
In June she reached her first WTA Tour final in Eastbourne as a qualifier, losing to Maya Joint 4-6, 6-1, 6-7(10). At the US Open she beat 14th seed Clara Tauson 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(11), the first Grand Slam main-draw win by a Filipino in the Open Era. She then won the Guadalajara WTA 125 in September, finished the year at No. 50 and took singles gold at the SEA Games in Thailand in December. The Philippine Sportswriters Association named her co-Athlete of the Year 2025 together with gymnast Carlos Yulo.
Alex Eala in 2026: a WTA champion in the top 20
The 2026 season brought the biggest results of her life. She won the WTA 125 event in Birmingham on 7 June, reached the semifinals of the WTA 500 in Berlin with wins over Elena Rybakina and Elina Svitolina, and at Wimbledon beat defending champion Iga Swiatek 7-6(9), 6-2 on her way to the fourth round. On 3 August 2026 she completed a 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 win over Jessica Pegula in the rain-delayed final of the Mubadala DC Open in Washington – the first WTA Tour title for the Philippines.
She entered the top 20 the same day and reached her career high of No. 18 on 24 August 2026. Off the court she was included in the TIME100 Next 2026 list and Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2026, and received a presidential citation from President Marcos on 13 July 2026. In late September she chose the Asian Games over the China Open and won bronze in Nagoya. Season by season, the full story is told on the page about Alex Eala's career; for lighter reading, try our Alex Eala facts, and her official player profile is on wtatennis.com.