Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.
— American actress-singer Julie Andrews
When our country’s pride, Alexandra ‘Alex’ Eala, turned professional in March 2020, she initially started with a junior combined ranking and debuted on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women’s World Tennis Tour at Number 1180 in the world rankings.
And now, Alex has started on the tennis tour and already she has found herself in and around the apex of the sport.
Thanks to her meteoric rise she has risen with added pressure even as many hardcourt aficionados wondering if she might indeed convert her undeniable talent into Grand Slam glory.
“It would be crazy,” tennis icon Roger Federer had commented but by the way things are going, our 21-year-old rising star is set to achieve what no Filipina better has reached in the last 100 years.
Her title in Washington earlier this summer represented her first at the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour level and this was sandwiched in between two career-best runs at the Wimbledon and the United States Open.
Alex is definitely progressing towards that ultimate goal.
Former netter and now tennis pundit Psm Howard Shriver praised her in a brief assessment of what makes Eala so special.
“I feel like her movement is exceptional. I love the way she uses angles. A lot of left-handers through the years, and it can develop; they just develop the appreciation of spin and the use of spin really well.
“I also have seen a great improvement on some of her weaker shots. Let’s just use the serve. That was so vulnerable a couple of years ago,” Shriver enthused.
Agreed. We’ve seen Alex up her game, especially her first serve. But overall, it’s her positive attitude that has been contributing greatly in her game.
Still, Pam says that “even if you don’t have a great serve, it’s really how you back it up.”
“(Alex) backs it up really, really well. If she’s not having a good day serving, it doesn’t affect the rest of her game,” she noted.
The truth, though, is that with the kind of serve Alex uses, it will never be the most powerful like those of the Williams siblings Venus and Serena during their prime.
However, Alex can look to former German ace Angelique Kerber, who claimed three major titles without an outstanding serve.
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