The Philippines has discovered another way to celebrate Alexandra Eala, and this one lit up the Manila skyline. A massive LED tennis ball was on display at SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City after the 21-year-old became the first player from her country to win a WTA Tour singles title, capping a two-day, rain-interrupted comeback over top seed Jessica Pegula in the Mubadala DC Open final.

“To the little girl who dared to dream, you showed us what it means to be Filipino. Congratulations on your historic win, Alex! Love ka namin,” McDonald’s Philippines posted alongside an illustration of three tennis players of different ages, a nod to Eala’s journey from young hopeful to national icon.

The final itself lived up to the celebration. Pegula had taken the first set 6-4 and was up 2-1 in the second when rain suspended play on Sunday. When they resumed Monday, Eala broke serve to force a decider, then blitzed through the third set with a 5-0 run before Pegula’s final error sealed the title. It also doubled as payback: Pegula had beaten Eala in the Miami Open semifinal last year, and fittingly, Washington was the same tournament where Pegula herself won her first WTA title, back in 2019.

“To all my supporters, especially the Filipino community, here in DC and back home and wherever you are in the world, I feel all the love,” Eala said afterward.

“Before the final yesterday, I got so many messages, sweet messages, from my family and from my friends who are on Tour or wherever else in the world, and I thought to myself, ‘I feel so much love,'” she added. “So standing here in the middle of all this love, my first chance at the title knowing it won’t be my last, and already having achieved this feat and this milestone for my career, I knew that whatever would have happened after this match it would have already been a win for me.”

Even Manny Pacquiao weighed in, congratulating her on social media for showing “the heart of a Filipino” and calling her “our new champion.”

Eala’s route to the title read like a highlight reel of the modern women’s game: beating reigning Olympic and Asian Games gold medalist Zheng Qinwen, dethroning defending champion Leylah Fernandez, sweeping world No. 10 Elina Svitolina in straight sets, then dismantling four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals. The run puts her on track to break into the Top 20 for the first time, up from her prior career-high of No. 28, cementing her as the highest-ranked Filipino tennis player in history.

She’s having the best season of her career, backed by a Birmingham WTA 125 title and a Berlin WTA 500 semifinal run where she beat two Top 10 players along the way. But the moment that really turned her into a household name back home came at Wimbledon, where she beat defending champion Iga Swiatek in the third round before advancing all the way to the fourth round, the first time any Filipino has reached the second week of a Grand Slam singles event in the Open Era. Her on-court speech after the Swiatek win captured everything that had followed her since.

“I’m really emotional and maybe for someone like Iga who has won so many Slams, maybe someone like Serena or Venus this achievement may seem small, but for someone who grew up in the Philippines and I went to train with my brother and my grandfather every day after school with my ruffled socks, my high-top shoes and my chubby cheeks so to her this is everything,” she said.

“It’s incredible to have my countrymen cheering me on and knowing that we are all in this together, so this goes out to them, this goes out to my family, this goes out to all the little girls with ruffled socks and chubby cheeks, so it means the world.” 

That support has followed her everywhere, including in Washington, where Jessica Pegula herself joked it felt almost cruel to face Eala given how loudly the crowd backed her, essentially playing in her home country from thousands of miles away. That pattern of national devotion didn’t start with this title, either.

A nation that has made celebrating Eala a habit

This isn’t the first red-carpet treatment the Philippines has given its brightest tennis star. After her Wimbledon breakthrough last month, Eala returned to a hero’s welcome at Ninoy Aquino International Airport on July 12, greeted by officials from the Philippine Tennis Association, the Philippine Sports Commission, and the Philippine Olympic Committee, with music from Banda Kawayan ng Pilipinas, a group performing on instruments made entirely of bamboo. Eala was reportedly taken aback by the reaction, wondering aloud whether it was really all for her.

The next day, she received a hero’s welcome at Malacañang Palace, where President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presented her with a presidential citation for her Wimbledon run. Visibly emotional, Eala admitted to unusual nerves addressing a room full of government officials.

“I feel very seen. Hearing that come from you, I feel like all the hard work that I’ve done is seen and validated and appreciated,” she said, adding that the achievement belonged to every Filipino rather than to her alone. “I carry the flag with me wherever I go. And I am a firm believer that where you come from is a big part of who you are.”

There were public fan events too, like the packed Glorietta Activity Center, where fans lined the glass railings on every floor, and a homecoming gathering organized by Globe in Mandaluyong City, supported by a livestream so Filipinos overseas could join in.

“I genuinely felt everyone’s love and support during each match, so it’s wonderful to be home again,” Eala said at the time.

With a maiden WTA title now added to her list of firsts, and the WTA 1000 National Bank Open in Canada next on her schedule before the US Open later this month, that giant tennis ball dancing over Pasay City feels less like a one-off and more like the latest chapter in a celebration that shows no sign of slowing down.