Life presents many choices, the choices we make determine our future.
— Canadian poet and motivational writer Catherine Pulsifer
Our Filipino tennis champion Alexandra “Alex” Eala faces points penalty and fines if she skips the Beijing Open to suit up for the Philippines in the upcoming Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan without exemption from the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
The Beijing Open is one of the 10 mandatory 1000-tier tournaments in the WTA calendar, with this year’s edition running from September 30 to October 11.
Unfortunately, this runs smack into the Asian Games tennis play schedule slated from September 27 to October 3.
There would have been no problem if Alex had the choice to decide where to play, but unfortunate, again, as a high-ranking player, she is contractually obliged to compete in Beijing.
Not doing so would mean sanctions that include point penalty and fines. And it appears she simply can be exempt from competing in China as the only reason the WTA grants exemption is usually when players are dealing with injuries or personal matters.
Still, there is a small window of hope for this as the Philippine Tennis Association (PhilTA) is asking the WTA to allow Eala to skip Beijing and instead play for the Philippines in Nagoya.
Currently, there has been no reply yet from the WTA. But if it denies PhilTA’s request, a zero-pointer will be forced on Eala’s Beijing 1000 slot in the scoring system. This is something Alex cannot simply replace with a better 1000 tournament performance since it’s part of the 11 mandatory competitions including the 4 Grand Slams.
Critically, with a “0” forced into her total, the WTA scoring system will wipe out her lowest scoring tournament from her “7 Best Other” slots (125s, 250s, 500s) to keep her total tournaments at 18.
Fortunately, though, Eala does not have to defend points in Beijing thanks to her non-participation last year.
Now, if fortune favors our country’s pride and she gets an exemption, the scoring system will leave her Beijing Open slot as blank and count her 17 other tournaments for her total. Moreover, that lowest scoring output from her 7 best other tournaments will not be wiped out.
Finally, if the WTA does not grant Eala an exemption, she will have to pay fines and even lose year-end bonuses amounting to thousands of dollars.
Meanwhile, we heard that it’s going to be Olympic boxing bronze medalist Aira Villegas and bemedalled young weightlifter Albert Ian Delos Santos who will carry the Philippine flag at the opening ceremony of the 20th Asian Games.
There were hopes, too, that Alex would also join as flag-bearer but Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham Tolentino explained that Eala was initially considered for the role, but had to decline to give herself ample rest ahead of the Singapore Open.
The WTA 500 tournament runs from September 21 to 27 while the Asian Games tennis competition is scheduled from September 27 to October 3.
During the send-off ceremony of the Philippine delegation, Tolentino cited that he was on a phone call with Alex’s dad and the old man kindly said that her daughter needs to rest for the Singapore Open, so the PhilTA head had to understandably agree.
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