Alex Eala has always projected an image of composure. She never lets her emotions get in the way whether she is losing and, especially, when she is winning. She remains cool, confident and goes about her business in ways many expected her.
COLUMN: Thanks to Eala, Philippine tennis has a moment to remember
Sometimes though, she could not help expressing what she truly wants to say in the heat of battle. It happened in her dramatic first-round win at the US Open Sunday.
She was on the verge of breaking world No. 15 Clara Tauson, the score 4-5, 15-30, when she returned Tauson's serve with a well-placed forehand. Tauson's reply was weak, and Eala was forced to lurch forward to return the ball, landing her in no-man's land. Though Tauson was able to get to the ball on time, Eala was already at the net, and the ball was there for the taking.
Wham.
Near pandemonium followed and Eala was seen expressing a favorite Filipino expletive captured on TV and, many expect, will now become part of Eala's lore.
“Pu—- —a,” the young Eala heaved with a smile, saying a word that means many things: anger, joy, sadness, success, and other range of emotions. When you can't say a particular feeling, you normally use this word.
Eala blurted hers in a fit of joy and satisfaction, having executed a stroke that by all means was the best that she could muster at that particular moment. That it was seen by spectators adept at lip-reading and thousands more on their TV screens, does not diminish the Filipina's stature at all.
It may even enhanced it. She's human. And she knows this word, an expletive, if addressed towards another person, is actually an expression that she made it.
READ: Alex Eala pulls off dramatic US Open comeback vs Clara Tauson
Put another way, it's something a regular everyday man would blurt out after finishing a tough and long day’s work, a young DOTA player getting a tough kill in a cramped internet cafe, and most likely it even mimicked the same type of reaction from fans who watched her take that thrilling point and get back in the match after what looked like another early exit in a grand slam.
It’s something that’s not usually seen from Eala, who time and time again mentioned how she looked up to Maria Sharapova as a kid – a player who’s known for how well she carries herself on and off the court.
But just and only in this case, there’s no harm done.
READ: No matter how well she does, Alex Eala will always be a big Sharapova fan
It’s Eala being a Filipina, and not only did she break Tauson, she broke barriers once again – from sportsmen, tennis snubs to your everyday ‘memer’ on the internet as those two words had every Filipino relating with her at that very moment, here and abroad, for better or worse.
Moments later, Eala would once again make history by becoming the first player from the Philippines to win a tennis grand slam match after exiting in Q1 in the French Open and in the Wimbledon.
And those two forbidden words perhaps exemplified what Eala had to go through to make history for the Philippines where the sport tennis was a mere afterthought before she came along.
Doubts, injuries, early exits, ‘overrated and overhyped’ claims from fans who should know better, a 1-5 deficit in the third set of the US Open and fatigue in a match that lasted close to three hours – all erased after those two words.
And while this isn’t us normalizing the use of profanity in sports, the magnitude of the moment calls for it.
Pu—- —, Alex. You did it.
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