THE Philippine Women’s Open, to be held in a few weeks at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center, brings back to the country world-class tennis that was once a staple of the local sports scene.
Unknown perhaps to the new generation of fans only recently lured to the sport by the unprecedented exploits of Alex Eala, there was a time many decades ago when the Philippines was a regular stop for a number of the world’s top players.
Back in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, we had what was known as the Philippine Tennis Grand Prix, a tournament played, believe it or not, at what is now the Rizal Memorial basketball court.
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Australia’s John Newcombe, a former Wimbledon champion, was a regular competitor. Others who also came were France’s Yannick Noah, a French Open winner; Spain’s Manuel Orantes, who defeated Jimmy Connors in the 1975 US Open final; India’s Vijay and Anand Amritraj, who excelled in doubles and led India to the Davis Cup finals twice; and familiar names like Kim Warwick, Ross Case, Brian Teacher, and Geoff Masters.
But the biggest stars to come over and play were John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg, who played an exhibition match in 1989 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
McEnroe was at his peak, leading the US just weeks earlier to victory at the Davis Cup, then one of the most prestigious tennis events in the world.
Borg, meanwhile, was coming out of retirement, having shocked the world when he announced his retirement in 1983 at the age of 25. Shocking, because he was very young and on top of his game, winner of the several Grand Slams, including six French Open titles and five Wimbledon crowns.
The Philippine match was part of the Asian Reunion Tour that also had stops in Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan. Borg called it his farewell tour. Fans were wild about catching the outgoing Swede, calm, methodical, golden, and handsome, playing against the American, brash, temperamental, creative, and attractive.
The Swede lost decisively. Borg, coming from retirement, had no answer to McEnroe, who brought into the match his power, guile, and very recent taste of victories. Except for flashes of his old brilliance, Borg didn’t have a chance against McEnroe’s invigorated fluidity. In fact, absent was the electrifying exchange in their previous matches at the majors that had become the stuff of tennis lore.
After this exhibition, no tennis game of similar magnitude visited the country again. The games that managed some international flavor were the Southeast Asian Games that we hosted and that featured the region’s best players, none of whom, unfortunately, carried global gravitas.
This is expected to change with the Philippine Women’s Open on January 26-31, 2026.
Although the event will not showcase any of the Top 40 women players in the world, this being classed in the 125 category or the lowest in the WTA tier — tops is the Grand Slam, then the 1000, 500 and 250 levels — it is nevertheless a worthy jump from, well, nothing.
Also we still expect quality tennis, with many strong women players aspiring for ranking points, a number using the event to reclaim visibility, and several more viewing it as a bridge to access higher levels of competition.
Alex Eala will be the focal point of the tournament and the main reason why we are having this event. The total prize money is $115,000, put up by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and supervised by the Philippine Tennis Association (Philta).
The event is wholly a PSC initiative, and to make it happen, a multimillion-peso renovation of the Rizal Memorial tennis court was packaged to meet the exacting requirements of the WTA, the world’s ruling body for women’s tennis.
Eala’s presence, however, is in limbo. The 20-year-old Filipino star’s appearance is out of the hands of the PSC and Philta because of the unfortunate circumstance that our local event overlaps with the Australian Open. In the latter, Eala is in the main draw, placed there by her ranking of 49th in the world.
Her first game on Philippine soil as a rising star, therefore, depends squarely on her Australian Open journey, the year’s first tennis major, where she enters as a decided underdog but where, as she has shown in a majestic run at the Miami Open where she beat three major champions, she may well upset bigger tennis stars.
If she survives the fourth round of the Australian Open, she will be out of the Philippine Open. Because her next match over there is the start of the matches over here. The Philippine Women’s Open is from the 26th - 31st of Jan; the Australian Open is from the 21st of Jan - 1st of Feb.
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Her absence would be unfortunate for local organizers, of course. Yet this is ultimately not a bad thing because it means that our very own star has advanced to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam — a historic achievement and proof that Eala is on her way to total stardom.
The other good thing about her absence: this means the Philippines gets a free ride to world attention, quicker and nicer and cleaner than the multibillion-peso international events we keep hosting with little ROI.
And so, Patrick Gregorio, PSC chair and architect and inspiration behind the Philippine Women’s Open, is on tenterhooks. He wants Eala in Manila but he also wants Eala in Melbourne.
In the end, it’s a win-win whichever way Eala’s serve bounces.
Australian first round loser gets P8.9 million
Meanwhile, increased prizes have been announced for the Australian Open. The champions, for both men and women, will receive $4.15 million each. The first-round losers will get $150,000 each.
This means that if Eala loses in the first round, something we hope will not happen, she goes home with about 8.9 million in Philippines pesos. Imagine if she makes it to the next round.
Girls, time to start getting those tennis lessons.
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