I am a sports fanatic. My late father Tiyong, who was a salesman of the multinational soda firm Pepsi Cola, would buy newspapers daily and my favorite section was always, aside from comics, sports. That made me well-informed on sports at a young age.
My favorite was, of course, Manny Pacquiao. I used to watch his fights even when I was tasked to be with a relative in the hospital. I would surreptitiously get out and pay just to be able to see the coverage on television of a Pacquiao fight. Now, I have become an Alex Eala fan.
Yes, Eala is a tennis player and not a boxer like Pacquiao. The Philippines is a boxing and basketball country, not a tennis country. While tennis is popular here, it is not mass-based because engaging in it is costly. You have to buy a racket and pay a ball boy just to be able to play in tennis courts built inside subdivisions or near a barangay hall or church or in plazas. But I did like reading tennis stories in newspapers when I was younger.
For the men, I read stories about Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, etc. For the women, I read about Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Maria Sharapova, Martina Hingis and even Anna Kournikova. No Filipinos or Filipinas there, of course. The name Felicisimo Ampon was often mentioned, but I was too young then to know his game. There were the Filipino-Americans who played for the Philippines in the Davis Cup and other global tennis events but they were virtually foreigners and I could not identify with them.
No wonder Eala herself admitted during interviews that she didn’t have Pinoy idols as far as tennis is concerned. I was amused when she said that because one of the reporters covering her is ABS-CBN’s Dyan Castillejo, a former tennis player though not as successful as Eala. Eala herself has set records because Philippine tennis records are few and far between. For example, Eala is the first Pinoy in the top 50, or should I say, top 20 in the Women’s Tennis Association or WTA, the global women’s tennis organization. She is also the first Pinoy tennister, man or woman, to win a global tennis tournament. She captured that in Washington in the United States, no less.
Eala is only 21 years old, meaning that if she does not get injured, more stories will be told about her. Months ago, President Bongbong Marcos even hosted an event for Eala, meaning that even now, her exploits are being recognized. Eala is becoming the most popular player in the world. Even Leylah Fernandez, a Canadian with Filipino blood has come out with a lengthy analysis, or should I say praise, of her game.
It’s sad that sports and not politics is the one discipline that is giving us pride. Pinoys have also started to make a name in Hollywood. What I am saying is that despite some negative connotations, our version of a diaspora is the one that is giving us pride. Filipinos are everywhere in the world. And Eala became popular worldwide because of the Filipinos who watch her game everywhere. Her fan base, called “Eala’s army,” is now one of the biggest globally.