MANILA, Philippines — ALEX EALA seeing action at the Aichi-Nagoya 20th Asian Games and risking sanctions from the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) shows purely the global tennis sensation’s patriotic heart, according to Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham Tolentino.
“We can always say that Alex Eala is giving back to her country, to the support Filipinos in the country and where ever she competes, they have amazingly established that global ‘Eala Mania,’” Tolentino said.
“The WTA has its rules and breaking the rules has penalties,” he said. “But Alex will be in Nagoya, for flag and country.” Asian Games tennis that starts September 27 at the Higashiyama Park Tennis Center in Nagoya runs conflict to the China Open in Beijing set September 30 to October 11.
Eala will be bound to face sanctions because a WTA1000 event—just like all four Grand Slam tournaments—is mandatory appearance for players ranked in the top 30 in the world.
Sanctions would border on points deduction in the world rankings or zero points, thus stalling Eala’s climb to the world top 10.
Qinwen Zheng, reigning Olympic champion and Asian Games gold medalist, and fellow Chinese Wang Xinyu, mixed doubles silver medalist in Paris, won’t be in Nagoya.
Eala clinched bronze behind Qinwen and another Chinese, Zhu Lin, in Hangzhou three years ago. TMT
