MANILA – Of all the junior grand slam events, Filipino teenage champion Alexandra “Alex” Eala has yet to conquer Wimbledon.

The 17-year-old made history at the 2022 US Open in New York when she became the first player from the Philippines to win a junior singles championship.

In 2021, she clinched the Roland Garros girls’ doubles crown in Paris, France at age 16 with Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia.

She bagged her maiden slam title as a 14-year-old alongside Priska Madelyn Nugroho of Indonesia at the 2020 Australian Open girls’ doubles event in Melbourne.

Eala, who turns 18 on May 23, can still join Junior Wimbledon as The Championships will accept players aged 14 to 18 into its four events this July.

Now on her final year as an eligible Wimbledon junior, is conquering the grass courts at the All England Club still an aspiration for the former International Tennis Federation (ITF) Juniors World No. 2 and three-time junior slam winner?

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“My priority for this year is really going to be professional tournaments. If ever I do play juniors, you know there are a lot of things I need to take into consideration. It also depends on the calendar, maybe it will be the same time as another tournament so I have to see if that’s really the best choice for me right now,” Eala told ABS-CBN News during the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Thailand Open in January.

Despite being focused on competing on the professional tour, it is worthy to note that Eala’s momentous US Open stint last year was the only juniors event in her 2022 season.

The Rafa Nadal Academy scholar even mentioned in an ITF article that her participation in the 2022 US Open Juniors was a “last-minute decision.”

As she did not close the door on joining Junior Wimbledon this year, it would be interesting to see how Eala will fare on grass as she has limited experience on the surface.

She has yet to win a title on grass, having joined only two tournaments as a junior ace.

She lost in the quarterfinals of the 2021 J1 Roehampton in Great Britain against fellow teenager and current WTA World No. 58 player Linda Fruhvirtova of Czech Republic, 4-6, 1-6.

• Tennis: Alex Eala, Indonesian partner ousted in Junior Wimbledon doubles Round 2

In her Junior Wimbledon debut a week later, she suffered a second-round defeat versus eventual champion Ane Mintegi Del Olmo of Spain, 6-3, 4-6, 5-7.

In the doubles draw, Eala and Nugroho lost to Chelsea Fontenel of Switzerland and Ashlyn Krueger of the United States, 4-6, 6-4, 9-11, in the second round.

Eala, who is ranked 267th on the WTA Tour, has never joined a grass tournament on the professional level.

“Well, it’s a little intimidating,” Eala said of her tennis journey in 2023. “It’s one thing transitioning from junior to pro, and it’s another thing transitioning into the WTA. So that’s another journey that I’m trying to overcome.”

The two-time ITF singles winner made her pro debut in a grand slam at the Australian Open in January, which she exited in the first round of qualifying.

Later that month, she qualified for the Thailand Open in Hua Hin and was eliminated in the first round by 2022 Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria of Germany.

Eala returned to the Miami Open in March as a main draw wildcard, but faltered in the opening round against Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania.

The Filipino teen received another WTA 1000 main draw wild card from the Madrid Open in Spain, where she was ousted in the first round once more by Maria.

Eala, who achieved a career-best ranking of World No. 214 in October, is the highest-ranked Filipino singles player in WTA history.

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