MANILA, Philippines – Filipina tennis star Alex Eala concludes a scintillating 2025 not solely with a number of milestones underneath her belt but in addition with deeper pockets.
Peaking at a career-high No. 50 and presently sitting at No. 53 within the WTA rankings, Eala ends the yr within the prime 100 of the 2025 WTA prize cash leaders with earnings of $907,777 (over P53 million) for the 74th spot.
Eala greater than tripled her earnings after raking in $289,628 in 2024, the place she positioned No. 159 in prize cash.
So, how did Eala win that a lot?
Reward for successful
The extra prestigious the event is and the farther the participant goes, the larger the prize cash is.
With regards to the top-tier WTA Tour, the 4 Grand Slams — the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open — supply the most important purse.
This yr, all the Grand Slam champions in singles play obtained at the least $2.5 million, with the most important coming from the US Open as males’s winner Carlos Alcaraz and girls’s titlist Aryna Sabalenka obtained $5 million every.
Alcaraz and Sabalakena topped the prize cash ladder for the ATP and WTA in 2025 with $21,354,778 and $15,008,519, respectively.
Under the Grand Slams are the WTA 1000, WTA 500, and WTA 250 tournaments. Then there may be the WTA 125 or WTA Challengers, which is the second-highest stage of ladies’s competitors, a rung under the WTA Tour.
It was in a WTA 1000 occasion, the Miami Open, the place Eala gained her greatest prize cash as she pocketed $332,160, following her historic run to the semifinals that noticed her beat Grand Slam champions Iga Swiatek, Madison Keys, and Jelena Ostapenko.
However maybe extra essential than the prize cash had been the essential factors Eala gained that allowed her to enter the world prime 100 for the primary time — the Filipina leaping from No. 140 to a then-career-high No. 75 by the tip of March.
Cracking the highest 100 meant direct entry to Grand Slams, the place a single look in the principle draw ensures an even bigger prize cash than a deep run in lower-tier tournaments.
For instance, Eala made $84,452 from her first-round exit within the French Open in Might, which is greater than double her purse of $30,380 when she superior to the ultimate of the WTA 250 Eastbourne Open in Nice Britain in June.
Nonetheless, each had been historic feats for Eala, who turned the primary Filipino to play in a Grand Slam fundamental draw and the primary Filipino to achieve the ultimate of a WTA Tour occasion — each within the Open period.
Eala then bagged $89,465 in Wimbledon in July and $154,000 the next month within the US Open, the place she claimed one other piece of historical past as the primary Filipino to win a Grand Slam fundamental draw match within the Open period when she shocked then-world No. 15 Clara Tauson within the first spherical.
Though Eala misplaced to Cristina Bucsa within the second spherical, the momentum from that breakthrough win appeared to have carried over to the Guadalajara Open in Mexico in September as she gained her first-ever WTA Challenger crown, incomes $15,500.
Her different five-figure purses got here from the WTA 1000 Madrid Open (spherical of 64, $35,260), Australian Open (qualifying first spherical, $22,091), WTA 1000 Italian Open (spherical of 128, $15,120), and WTA 1000 Canadian Open (spherical of 128, $12,770).
Total, Eala gained $851,582 in singles and $56,195 in doubles on tour this 2025.
She may also get P300,000 from the federal government as incentive for successful the gold medal in girls’s singles within the Southeast Asian Video games in Thailand this December.
Cash comes and goes
However does Eala get to maintain all of it? After all not, as gamers get taxed within the international locations the place the tournaments are held.
For instance, overseas gamers who win prize cash in the US are typically topic to a regular withholding tax of 30%. In France, non-resident athletes usually face a 15% withholding tax on revenue sourced within the nation.
“After you end your event, it’s time to get your prize cash. The unhappy half about it’s that it’s a must to pay taxes,” mentioned present world No. 37 Daria Kasatkina, who ranked thirty third among the many WTA prize cash leaders for 2025 with $1,443,297, in a 2023 YouTube vlog detailing the realities on tour.
“We’re paying taxes within the nation the place we earned this cash, right away. We’re coming to the prize cash workplace, they provide us a paper, receipt, and there may be the prize cash with the deducted taxes.”
Kasatkina, who owns eight WTA Tour titles and achieved a career-high rating of No. 8, mentioned gamers additionally rent tax consultants, whose companies value cash as properly.
“It’s simply unimaginable for the tennis participant to know all of the tax legal guidelines in each nation of the world. No person needs to go to jail,” Kasatkina mentioned.
Different out-of-pocket bills embrace airfare, transportation, meals, lodging, and incidentals.
In 2025, Eala performed 27 tournaments on tour throughout 16 international locations: Australia, India, Singapore, Slovakia, United States, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Nice Britain, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Japan, and Hong Kong.
Bills for these journeys can change into huge when added up, way more if a participant is touring with a coach and different members of her workforce. Within the case of Eala, she has two coaches in Joan Bosch and Sandro Viaene from the Rafa Nadal Academy.
On prime of the journey prices, gamers with weaker passports like Eala should work on their visas, with some needing to faucet the companies of journey businesses. The Philippines ranks 77th within the Henley Passport Index, behind fellow Southeast Asian international locations Singapore (1st), Malaysia (tenth), Thailand (63rd) and Indonesia (68th).
“What’s difficult is having the ability to journey with flexibility. For me, I discover the visas difficult, having the ability to plan, as a result of as a tennis participant, you want time to arrange all of this each single time to have the visas prepared,” Eala mentioned in April.
Luckily, WTA Tour occasions present gamers with free lodge lodging.
Singles gamers in the principle draw of a WTA 250 event, for instance, get a minimal of a five-night keep, though these within the qualifying obtain solely a minimal of two nights.
The WTA additionally requires tournaments to offer complimentary meals and drinks for gamers, plus their two visitors at WTA 1000 and WTA 500 occasions, or one visitor at WTA 250 occasions.
“Totally different tournaments have completely different programs. A few of the tournaments, they provide, for instance, free meals for the participant plus coach. After which for the opposite members of your workforce, it’s a must to pay out of your pocket. Or a few of the tournaments, they only have a restaurant and everybody with the credential, they will simply come and eat as a lot as they need,” mentioned Kasatkina.
Then the gamers should pay members of their workforce, from salaries to bonuses.
“All of the gamers have completely different agreements with their groups, however belief me, it’s some huge cash. Tennis gamers are paying all the pieces by themselves,” mentioned Kasatkina.
For ATP participant Karue Promote, who reached a career-high rating of No. 258, taking part in skilled tennis is like “burning cash away.”
In 2024, Promote spent a complete of $39,137, which is greater than the $38,051 prize cash he earned earlier than tax. And his prices didn’t embrace a coach.
Cash for some gamers like Promote, although, shouldn’t be all the pieces.
Promote turned a revenue in 2025 as he pocketed $38,258 towards bills of $14,563, however he admitted the the season felt like a “failure” after accidents minimize his yr quick. At 32 years outdated, he is aware of he’s close to the twilight of his profession.
“I need to proceed to face nice gamers,” mentioned Promote in his YouTube vlog discussing his 2025 season. “I need to earn their respect.”
“Having your friends’ respect is a big forex in sports activities. I feel in all the pieces, actually. All of us need to really feel that mutual respect between rivals.”
Nonetheless solely 20 years outdated, Eala has her entire profession forward of her to earn more cash and command the respect of her foes — her standing because the fifth-highest ranked under-21 feminine participant on the planet a proof of her regular rise.
Eala now turns her focus to the Australian Open in January, the place she competes in the principle draw for the primary time. – Rappler.com
