By Florenda Corpuz
TOKYO – Filipino tennis star Alexandra Eala will make her first appearance at the Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis in Tokyo later this month, returning to Japan after winning a bronze medal for the Philippines at the Asian Games in Nagoya.
The 21-year-old Philippine tennis phenom is one of 17 players with direct entry into the singles main draw of the WTA 500 tournament, scheduled for Oct. 26 to Nov. 1 at Ariake Coliseum and Ariake Tennis Forest Park.
The tournament announced the direct-entry field Thursday. Eala enters the event after reaching a career-high No. 18 in the WTA rankings and winning her first WTA singles title in Washington, D.C., this year.
Eala won bronze in the women’s singles competition at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. She lost to China’s Wang Xiyu, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the semifinals Thursday.
The bronze was Eala’s second in Asian Games singles and her third medal overall. She also won bronze in singles and mixed doubles at the 2022 Hangzhou Games.
Eala won the US Open girls’ singles title in 2022, becoming the first player from the Philippines to win a junior Grand Slam singles championship. She reached the top 20 in the WTA rankings for the first time this year after turning professional.
In August, Eala became the first Filipina to win a WTA Tour singles title, defeating American Jessica Pegula, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, in the final of the Mubadala DC Open.
The Tokyo tournament will feature a field that includes world No. 1 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, Pegula, former world No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, defending champion Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Japan’s Naomi Osaka.
The 17 direct entrants were determined by the rankings as of Sept. 28. The 28-player main draw will have six additional players from qualifying, four wild cards and one special-exempt entry. Qualifying is scheduled for Oct. 24 and 25.
(Photo courtesy of Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis)
