Alex Eala has received another special message from Rafael Nadal after being named to the TIME100 Next 2026 list.
The 21-year-old Filipina was the only tennis player included on the list this year and was placed in the Innovators category. Nadal was asked to write about Eala, someone he has known for many years through the Rafa Nadal Academy.
The former world No. 1 started his message by revealing something that was not widely known before. Eala was the first tennis player he shared a court with after ending his professional career in November 2024.
“Alexandra Eala was the first player I shared a tennis court with after my retirement. One day, she asked whether I felt like hitting with her for a while. For the first time in many months, I picked up a racket and played again,” Nadal wrote.
Eala joined the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca when she was only 13. She later graduated from the academy and has continued returning there while building her professional career.
Nadal on Eala’s rise
The 22-time Grand Slam champion has watched the Filipina develop from a junior player into a top-20 name on the WTA Tour.
“I’ve been lucky enough to know Alex since she began her journey at Rafa Nadal Academy, and have closely followed her tremendous career. At just 19, Alex beat three Grand Slam champion players at the 2025 Miami Open. This year, she won the WTA 500 tournament, becoming the first player from the Philippines to break into the world’s top 20,” Nadal said.
And she still has plenty of room to grow. One of her greatest strengths is precisely her ability to listen, learn, and keep improving.”
Long before that result, Eala had already been known as one of the more interesting young players from her generation. She won the US Open girls’ singles title in 2022 and became the first Filipina to win a junior Grand Slam singles trophy. Her progress was followed closely in the Philippines, but Miami moved her name to a much bigger tennis audience.
Eala’s rise started getting much more attention after her run in Miami in 2025. She defeated several well-known names and reached the later stages of the WTA 1000 tournament as a wildcard.
The following season brought another step in her career. Eala won her first WTA Tour title in Washington and later moved to a career-high ranking of world No. 18.
The 21-year-old has also spoken before about what it is like to have Nadal and members of his family around her career.
“Of course, meeting Rafa and just being able to kind of converse with him on a quite a regular basis is crazy to me,” Eala said earlier this year.
“And you know, sometimes I’m coached by Toni [Nadal]. If you told me that when I was younger, there’s no way I would have believed you.”
Nadal praises Eala away from tennis
Nadal did not only talk about results when writing about the Filipina. The Spaniard also stressed the way Eala has dealt with the attention around her during the last two seasons.
“But perhaps more importantly, Alex remains a wonderful person; warm, approachable, and humble. It isn’t easy to handle becoming a true phenomenon at such a young age, and she deserves a lot of credit for keeping her feet on the ground.
Now, all that remains is to keep enjoying watching her progress.”
Alex has become one of the most followed athletes in the Philippines, and her matches have regularly attracted a lot of support from Filipino fans around the world.
Her 2026 season has included her Washington title, a fourth-round appearance at Wimbledon and another run into the top 20 of the rankings. At Wimbledon, she defeated three opponents before losing to Jasmine Paolini in the fourth round. It was another new result for Philippine tennis, as Eala became the first player from her country to reach that stage of a Grand Slam tournament.
She is currently in Japan representing the Philippines at the Asian Games. Eala defeated Joanna Garland 7-5, 6-0 in the quarterfinals, which guaranteed her at least a bronze medal in singles.