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As if her historic 2025 couldn’t get any higher, Alex Eala captures her first gold medal within the Southeast Asian Video games following her conquest within the ladies’s singles occasion
CHONBURI, Thailand – Alex Eala has performed on the largest levels, however there’s something about successful within the Southeast Asian Video games.
The Filipina tennis star captured her first SEA Video games gold medal after ruling the ladies’s singles occasion with a decisive 6-1, 6-2 win over Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew on the Nationwide Tennis Improvement Middle in Nonthaburi on Thursday, December 18.
“I feel that is only a entire ‘nother class,” Eala mentioned when requested the place she would rank her SEA Video games conquest amongst her many historic feats in 2025, which embrace a career-high No. 50 rating and a essential draw victory within the US Open.
“Enjoying with the nation written in your again and this type of group occasions simply deliver a special sort of strain. I’m so pleased with how I dealt with it and my efficiency day by day on court docket.”
The gold had remained elusive for Eala as she settled for 3 bronzes within the 2021 Vietnam version and one other one on this SEA Video games, when she and associate Francis Casey Alcantara misplaced within the semifinals of the blended doubles on Wednesday, December 17.
However there was no denying Eala on Thursday as she made fast work of Sawangkaew, turning into the primary Filipina to win the ladies’s singles title within the SEA Video games since Maricris Fernandez reigned in 1999.
Having the nationwide anthem performed for her for the primary time within the SEA Video games left Eala emotional.
“I’d been dreaming for a very long time to deliver that sort of pleasure to the Philippines. I’m so grateful and I’m so humbled to have the ability to signify our nation,” she mentioned.
And to share her triumph along with her mom Rizza and father Mike, who’ve been by her facet because the begin of the SEA Video games, made it much more particular.
Rizza can also be a SEA Video games medalist, bagging a swimming bronze within the ladies’s 100m backstroke in 1985.
“Us Filipinos, we’re so household oriented. That’s part of our tradition. SEA Video games is one thing, it’s very totally different than the tour as a result of it’s very private for us, private to the Southeast Asian international locations, and it’s particular in that manner,” Eala mentioned.
“It’s distinctive. It doesn’t occur each time. That’s why it’s that essential to our household.” – Rappler.com
