5 hours Ago By Bong O. Wenceslao
Basketball in the Philippines is in a good place, with 7’3” Kai Sotto in the Gilas lineup plus those tall naturalized players led by Justin Brownlee. And while the Philippine Basketball Association or PBA has problems getting an audience, other professional leagues in Asia have sprouted, turning local basketball players into overseas Filipino workers. Historically, though, it is the other sports disciplines that have given the country honor and, for the athlete, money.
There are, for example, boxing, weightlifting and even gymnastics. Boxing has brought us Olympic medalists and Manny Pacquiao. Lately, the profile of Filipino women’s tennis has been raised with the winning run of Alexandra Eala at the recent Miami Open.
Eala defeated three winners of previous major international tennis tournaments and has upped her Women’s Tennis Association ranking from 140 to 75. She also earned some P19 million in earnings just by reaching the semifinals of the tournament. Tennis is an expensive sporting discipline, but it also can have a big return on investment.
Eala’s family spent money not only for the equipment but also for her training. When she was only 13 years old, she was sent to Spain to spend time at the Rafael Nadal Academy. She was educated there and was trained by good tennis coaches.
Rafa Nadal was, of course, the former world number one in men’s tennis. He was the best clay court player during his time. Nobody saw Eala breaking through.
The Philippines was not a producer of good tennis players and Eala did not have local women tennisters to idolize. Yes, there was a good international women’s tennis player with Filipino blood in Leylah Fernandez, daughter of a Filipino-Canadian. But she is representing Canada and not the Philippines.
But Eala is only 19 years old, meaning that she still has many years ahead of her to raise her ranking. She is now 75th and could still get points to get to the top 50. Her current rating also allows her to play in major tennis tournaments like the French, Australian, Wimbledon (England) and Australian Opens without getting into wildcard games.
The future is therefore bright for the young tennister. But it is not only in women’s tennis that the Filipino’s game was raised. Tennis is an individual game.
In group games like volleyball and football, however, the women are flourishing. It is not only the men and it is not only in volleyball that sports disciplines in the Philippines are on the up and up. But athletes could not rely much on the government but rather on the private sector, like many other athletes like Eala.
Eala had Globe Telecom (where her mother once worked) and Bank of the Philippine Islands printed on the arm sleeves of her maroon shirt. She also had a Nike symbol on her apparel. Of course, Pacquiao was a walking advertisement in many of his international flights.
He is not known to be a billionaire for nothing..
