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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — As the clock approached midnight Friday, much of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden was ready to call it a night. The grounds were empty and staff had been cleaning up for hours after matches at Stadium 1, the 16,000-seat center court, wrapped up around 8:30 p.m., as with most of the other nine courts.
But the lights stayed on at Stadium 3, where a few thousand fans sat in the cool night for a second-round match.
It’s rare at Indian Wells—or pretty much any tennis tournament—to see such a sizable and raucous ground for a late-night second-round match.
They weren’t there to see a superstar like Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner on the verge of an upset, nor to watch American hopefuls like Coco Gauff or Amanda Anisimova. They were there to see the 31st-ranked player in the world.
Alex Eala, a 20-year-old from the Philippines, has become one of the sport’s biggest draws over the last year. She rewarded her fans’ patience with a three-set win over world No. 52 Dayana Yastremska.
The match ran for 2 hours and 43 minutes, the longest of the day.
“For them to make the effort to stay up late and stay in the cold and cheer me on, it really added to the feelings and the emotions,” Eala told reporters after the match.
The win means Eala, who was outside the top 100 at this time last year, will likely crack the top 30 after the BNP Paribas Open, slotting right behind big names like Emma Raducanu, Leylah Fernandez, and Emma Navarro.
Eala told Front Office Sports before the tournament that she always expected to be one of the best tennis players in the world, a logical belief for a prospect once ranked the No. 2 junior in the world and winner of the 2022 US Open girls’ singles title.
“My goal as a junior was to be ranked high, so I was able to envision myself being, somewhat, at the top,” Eala told FOS. The BNP Paribas Open was the first time Eala was ranked for a WTA 1000 event.
What she didn’t anticipate was fame well before she even sniffed a major title.
Eala, who turns 21 in May, has been bombarded by Filipino fans since her career breakthrough nearly a year ago, when she made the semifinals of the 2025 Miami Open. She defeated three former Grand Slam champions in the process, including current world No. 2 Iga Świątek.
At her first Australian Open in January, some fans were forced to stand during her first-round loss to Alycia Parks after it was assigned to a smaller court. A month later, she sold out all her matches in a quarterfinal run at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Gauff, who Eala will meet in Round 3 on Sunday at Indian Wells, acknowledged the value of Eala’s draw in Dubai. “I’ve played this tournament for many years and to see the stadium full, it means a lot,” she said.
“I did not expect this sort of fanbase or crowd rallying behind me,” Eala told FOS in an interview. “But it’s an incredible privilege to have, I tell you. And it’s not something your everyday person can experience, so I’m always so grateful.”
And fans are not only coming for matches.
On Tuesday, hundreds of fans packed a tiny practice court under the Palm Springs sun for Eala’s noon practice. On the courts next to her were men’s stars Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz, a Southern California native and 2022 BNP Paribas Open champion. They could only reel in a handful of fans.
“I’ve been coming to this tournament for ten years … This is the most Filipinos I’ve ever seen at this tournament,” said Andrew Rivera, a Filipino-American fan who made the two-hour drive from Los Angeles.
It was the same story at Eala’s other practices, where her crowds were comparable to those of Alcaraz, Sinner, and Venus Williams.
Tennis stars have mostly embraced the attention to Eala, despite her rowdy fans sometimes disrupting matches or creating issues for tournament organizers. Novak Djokovic called it a “good problem” to have. Andy Roddick said: “This is the type of story you cheer for because it’s great for tennis.”
“We love every minute of it,” BNP Paribas Open executive Philippe Dore told FOS. “We benefit from it. We promote it.” The tournament posted a “Day In The Life” video with Eala on Thursday that has 94,000 views, by far its most-watched YouTube video of the year. Indian Wells posted nine women on Instagram on Saturday as its “Class of 2026”: seven top-10 players, a well-known American… and Eala.
Longtime Filipino sports journalist TJ Manotoc told FOS that Filipino fans are coming out because the Philippines is starved for a new athlete to support on the international stage.
“The country has been hungry for the next Manny Pacquiao,” Manotoc told FOS. “When he was at his peak, life stopped. When there’s a fight, nothing’s on the road. Everyone’s watching.”
Manotoc isn’t surprised Filipinos have followed Eala around the globe, given that more than 10 million Filipinos live outside of the Philippines, including about 1.7 million in California.
The looming question is whether Eala, who turns 21 in May, can handle the pressure of carrying a country on her shoulders in a sport known for being mentally taxing. Other players, notably Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, have said there’s a “different pressure” that comes with being the face of a nation.
Eala’s embraced it so far.
“Being brave is the best thing I can do for myself,” Eala told FOS.
