Filipina tennis sensation Alex Eala fell short against the current world no. 9 Mirra Andreeva in women’s singles of the MGM Macau Tennis Masters, capping her well-decorated 2025 run in a bittersweet fashion.
Fresh from a historic gold medal run in the Southeast Asian Games, the 20-year-old phenom entered the tournament on a high note, but she was put to a tall test against a former world champion.
Eala tried to take the momentum of the game with her service, putting the pressure on the defense of Andreeva. Still, Eala wasn’t able to sustain her hot start, eventually losing the advantage and the opening set to Andreeva.
The Olympic medalist from Russia then started the second set, tearing apart Eala’s offense with her timing and court control, reminding everyone of her mettle as the world’s No. 9 player.
The Filipina held her ground in her final match of the year. But Andreeva’s experience dictated the result of the match, finishing the game with a dominant 6-4, 6-2 win.
Before this game, Eala partnered with Jerry Shang of China in the tournament’s mixed doubles. The duo barely came up short against the tandem of Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and China’s Yibing Wu in a narrow 7–5, 7–6(1) defeat.
Despite the loss, Eala was happy with how she performed against one of the world’s top players right now. “This experience was just so great for me,” Eala said in her post-game interview.
The losses will not affect Eala’s world ranking as the Macau Masters is not a WTA-accredited tournament.
Just weeks ago, Eala bannered Team Philippines in the 33rd biennial meet after clinching the elusive gold medal in the women’s tennis singles event. Eala delivered the country’s first women’s singles gold since Maricris Fernandez in 1999 in front of hundreds of Filipino fans in attendance at the National Tennis Development Center in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
Eala went beyond what she promised this year, etching her name in the history books of Philippine sports. From her becoming the first Filipina to reach a WTA 1000 semifinal event in the Miami Open, up to her main draw brilliance in the French, Wimbledon, and US Open, where Eala became the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam main-draw match.