This time, it’s women’s tennis!

Since last Monday, Aug. 3 (in Washington, DC, that is), no Philippine story on women’s tennis has failed to praise our own Alexandra “Alex” Eala, for winning the 2026 Washington Open, her first Women’s Tennis Association tour title. The 21-year-old Alex, a product of the Rafa Nadal Academy, now ranks No. 20 in the world. Four years ago, at the 2022 US Open, she was the girls’ singles champion. Just four weeks ago, she reached the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Modest and sportswoman-like, both when winning and losing, the beautiful and statuesque Alex is our newest model for the youth. Filipino communities in the diaspora follow her in droves. They induce tour organizers to allot the larger courts for her matches; they get audiences to recognize our flag. This very morning (Aug. 8, Manila time), she is in Toronto for the 2026 Canadian Open, with her third-round match to start soon after this column appears.

Our pride in Filipino sports achievements is of very long-standing. Two years ago, I wrote that the Philippines ranks fourth among 34 countries of the International Social Survey Program (issp.org) feeling Very Proud of doing well in sports (see “Pride in international sports,” 8/3/24). That was as of 2008, when we came after No. 1 Dominican Republic, No. 2 South Africa, and No. 3 Cyprus; after us came No. 5, Taiwan.

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Let me now update the Social Weather Stations data on Filipino pride of achievements in international sports, from a national survey of adults on Feb. 18-24, 2023. That survey asked whether the respondents felt Very Proud, Somewhat Proud, Not Very Proud, or Not Proud At All, of six types of achievements. The first three categories of history, sports, and arts/literature have always been on top in repeated surveys, though not always in the same order. The results above are in national percentages of respondents.

There surely is much Filipino pride in both our women and our men in sports. There needs to be more effort to gather data, per sport and per gender. Eala is our latest sports heroine, but we have many others, in various sports—remember Hidilyn Diaz’s weightlifting gold in the 2020 Olympics, for instance.

Just last Thursday, Aug. 6, our own Chezka Centeno missed being a back-to-back winner of the 2026 World Pool-Billiards (WPA) Ten-ball Championship, held in Rome; but being runner-up was a great achievement. Her kababayan Rubilen Amit, a two-time ten-ball champion herself, reached the 2026 quarterfinals; she was second to Chezka in the all-Filipino finals in 2025.

I habitually keep track of my favorite sport (see “Billiards, a lifetime sport,” 1/31/26; “Asia wins the Reyes Cup again,” 10/25/25). Obviously, our women players learn from our men. Watch for the third staging of the Reyes Cup—named after Efren “Bata” Reyes, the acknowledged GOAT, Greatest Of All Time—next November in Manila. I think there are 15 to 20 Filipino champion-caliber pool players, men and women, on professional circuits abroad. The immensity of our diaspora gives them home-court advantage almost everywhere.

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How about our women athletes in volleyball—think Alyssa Valdez—which has international leagues now. How about baseball and softball (including the little leagues)? The Philippines has just gotten a wildcard slot in the Women’s Baseball World Cup group stage, to be held on Aug. 23 to 27; the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium is being readied for it. If we make the top three in our group, then we advance to the finals next year in Illinois, USA.

And how about our women chess players? The list goes on and on.

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mahar.mangahas@sws.org.ph.