{"id":20981,"date":"2026-08-04T18:53:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/?p=20981"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:58:11","slug":"alex-eala-first-filipino-to-win-wta-tour-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/2026\/08\/04\/alex-eala-first-filipino-to-win-wta-tour-title\/","title":{"rendered":"ALEX EALA FIRST FILIPINO TO WIN WTA TOUR TITLE"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/strong>ENNIS sensation Alex Eala made history as the first Filipino to win a WTA Tour singles title by defeating world No. 3 Jessica Pegula<\/strong> in the Mubadala DC Open final early Tuesday (Philippine Time) at William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Washington, D.C.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eala jumped four spots to set a new career-high of World No. 20 after<\/strong>, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory against Pegula<\/strong> in the rain-delayed final in Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I think I warmed up a thousand times. It was difficult, I think … at the same time, it’s happened to me a lot; rain delays a lot of times in my life. I think this is just kind of another one of those, although it was a lot higher stakes. But I think I was able to take my time and take those learnings from the first half of the match and do my best to apply them in the second, and I think it worked pretty well,” the 21-year-old Eala said in a news release on the WTA website<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Eala thanked all her supporters, especially the Filipino community on Washingtong DC, and all over the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel so much love, Standing here in the middle of all the love, my first chance at the title knowing it won\u2019t be my last and already having achieved this feat and this milestone for my career . I knew that whatever would\u2019ve happened after this match, it would\u2019ve already been a win for me,\u201d Eala said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. congratulated Eala for making history for the Filipino people.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAlex Eala<\/strong>\u00a0does it again. The Philippines now has its first <\/strong>\ud835\uddea\ud835\udde7\ud835\uddd4\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\ud835\udff1\ud835\udfec\ud835\udfec\u00a0 <\/strong>champion<\/strong>,\u201d the President, in a social media post, said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations on yet another historic achievement,\u201d he added.<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Marcos said Eala continues to inspire young Filipinos to dream bigger.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou continue to redefine what is possible for Philippine tennis and inspire countless young Filipinos to dream without limits,\u201d \u00a0he noted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cKasama mo ang sambayang Pilipino sa pagdiriwang ng panibagong tagumpay na ito. Mabuhay ka, Alex!\u201d the President said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TENNIS sensation Alex Eala made history as the first Filipino to win a WTA Tour singles title by defeating world No. 3 Jessica Pegula in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,17],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala-.jpg",443,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala--150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala--266x300.jpg",266,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala-.jpg",443,500,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala-.jpg",443,500,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala-.jpg",443,500,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala-.jpg",443,500,false],"kreeti-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala-.jpg",443,500,false],"kreeti-featured":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala-.jpg",443,500,false],"kreeti-medium":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala-.jpg",443,500,false],"kreeti-medium-square":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eala--350x350.jpg",350,350,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Sports<\/a> Top News<\/a>","tag_info":"Top News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20981"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20986,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20981\/revisions\/20986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}