THE nation is all agog to see Alex Eala navigate her ever-expanding tennis career.
It’s been that way since she broke barriers last year by becoming the first Filipino to crash the global tennis scene since the late, legendary Felicisimo Ampon from the Forties to the Sixties.
Dubbed the “Mighty Mite,” the pint-sized Ampon was the first Filipino to see action at Wimbledon, the third of the four majors played yearly.
The psc.gov.ph lists Ampon as the 1948 Wimbledon Plate men’s singles gold medalist, the same year that he also won the Copenhagen International clay court crown and the Midland countries championship.
The same website says Ampon won the 1958 Asian Games’ men’s doubles gold, singles silver medal and the mixed doubles bronze partnering with her sister, Desideria.
Ampon was the 1937 Davis Cup zone champion after winning the gold in the 1934 Far Eastern Games at age 14. He won four gold medals in the Davis Cup Eastern Zone in 1957, 1958, 1960 and 1964.
In short, before Eala, there was Ampon, who reached the French Open quarterfinals twice. He was a Hall of Famer at Far Eastern University in 2007 and inducted into the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
I met Ampon when I was covering for the Manila Bulletin his son play in the 1974 National Open tennis tournament.
After his son lost the match, Ampon said to me: “He needs to practice more.”
Ampon, born on Oct. 27, 1920, in Manila, would soon migrate to the US, where he died on Oct. 7, 1997.
In his heyday, Ampon puzzled his foes with sky-high lobs, deft placements and hard-to-read drop shots.
Power tennis wasn’t in vogue during his time unlike today when aggression punctuated with audacity is the name of the game.
Eala has developed that genre after almost an eight-year schooling at the Nadal Tennis Academy in Spain.
It’s been almost a year now since she turned pro, highlighting her debut by beating in blistering succession major champions Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek in the 2025 Miami Open in March to leapfrog from 149th to 50th.
Eala was to face on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, Tereza Valentova in Round 1 of the Qatar Open in Doha, hoping to avenge her 6-1, 6-2 loss to the 18-year-old Czech in October 2025 in the Japan Open.
I believe Eala, 20, can do it. She’s been maturing faster than a Formula One speedster.