Alex Eala’s Singapore Tennis Open lasted one match. The third seed had a first-round bye, then lost her opener to Russia’s Tatiana Prozorova, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, on Thursday night at OCBC Arena. She led in the second set and again in the third, and neither lead held. Eala took a 67-minute opening set that ran to seven deuces in one game. She was up 4-2 in the second before Prozorova won five of the last six games. In the decider, Eala came back from 0-2 to lead 3-2, and Prozorova won every game after that.

The ranking gap was 162 places, so it’ll be called an upset, and it was one. Prozorova was making her first appearance as a direct entrant in a WTA 500 main draw. She was crying when she shook Eala’s hand. Her next opponent in the quarterfinals is China’s Wang Xinyu, one of the players who picked the tour over the Asian Games.

Singapore was always the tune-up, though. Eala is now heading to Nagoya with three extra days before the event she chose over a mandatory WTA 1000.

Third Seed, by Way of Everyone Else’s Schedule

When ElysPlanet last wrote about this trip, Eala was slotted sixth, in a draw that still had Jessica Pegula in it. Pegula, a US Open semifinalist this month, has since pulled out, along with several other seeded names. The reshuffle moved Eala up to third seed. That was high enough for a first-round bye in the 28-player draw, which sent her straight into the round of 16.

The tournament itself moved up too. Last year’s Singapore Tennis Open was a WTA 250, the tour’s entry tier. For 2026 it was upgraded to a WTA 500, one level below the WTA 1000 events, and it’s now the only tournament at that tier in Southeast Asia. In 2025, Eala couldn’t get through qualifying here. She first played in Singapore at 11, as a junior. This week she arrived as the highest-ranked Southeast Asian player the sport has ever produced.

She said it felt like home turf. “I feel so at home… being in Southeast Asia,” she told the WTA before the match. Singapore and Manila share a time zone, and Filipinos made up most of the crowd on Thursday.

The Opponent Filipino Fans Had Already Seen

Prozorova is 22 and ranked No. 180, with a career high of 140 set in 2025. Filipino fans may remember her from January’s inaugural Philippine Women’s Open at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center. She beat Filipina Kaye-Ann Emana there and made the semifinals before losing to Croatia’s Donna Vekic. Eala played the same tournament and reached the quarterfinals, but the two never crossed paths that week.

Prozorova came to Singapore off a first-round qualifying loss at the US Open. She beat Belgium’s Sofia Costoulas in three sets in the opening round, coming back from a set down, which set up her first career meeting with Eala. Her second comeback of the week was the one that counted.

A Fan Vote She’s Already Running Away With

Off the court, Eala is on the WTA shortlist for “Star of the Swing,” the tour’s fan-voted award for the standout player of the North American hard-court season. As of Wednesday she had 78 percent of more than 5,000 votes. World No. 1 Elena Rybakina was a distant second at 16 percent, and Iga Swiatek third at three.

Her case rests on the DC Open title, her first on the WTA tour, and her third-round run at the US Open. If she wins, it will be her second Star of the Swing award this season. She took the grass-court version in July, after winning the WTA 125 title in Birmingham and reaching the Wimbledon round of 16.

Still No Ruling, and Now a Senator Offering to Pay

Ten days after the Philippine Tennis Association (PHILTA), the country’s national tennis federation, asked the WTA to excuse Eala from the China Open, the tour still hasn’t ruled. The China Open is a mandatory WTA 1000 event in Beijing that overlaps the Asian Games. The WTA’s own entry announcement for Beijing lists 18 of the world’s top 20 players. The two exceptions are Victoria Mboko, who is injured, and Eala, described only as having “adjusted her schedule.”

The possible $10,000 fine has turned into a political talking point back home. Senator Erwin Tulfo suggested the government help cover it, calling it “a price worth paying for.” Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino has said she’ll be in Nagoya whatever the WTA decides. Money was never the heavier cost, though. A missed mandatory event without an exemption counts as a zero on her ranking for a full year, and no government subsidy can cover that.

The Asian Games Almost Didn’t Show Her

For a few days it looked like Filipinos wouldn’t be able to watch Eala play in Nagoya at all. Tennis isn’t among the 28 sports guaranteed a live world feed from the Games’ host broadcaster. Cignal, the Philippines’ official broadcaster for the Asiad, fixed that by spending an extra ₱1 million to put its own cameras at the Higashiyama Park Tennis Center. Her matches will air on One Sports, One Sports+ and Cignal Play.

The feed was cut partly because the stars it would have followed aren’t coming. The Chinese Tennis Association confirmed that former world No. 4 Zheng Qinwen, the defending Asian Games champion, whom Eala beat earlier this season, will skip Nagoya for Beijing, along with Wang Xinyu. Japan’s top players are expected to do the same. That leaves Eala as the highest-ranked player in the women’s draw.

The stakes are specific. The Philippines hasn’t won an Asian Games tennis gold since 1962. A gold medal also qualifies her for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, as long as her ranking stays inside the top 500. It would also give a real push to Team Philippines’ eight-gold target.

What’s Left on the Calendar

Tennis in Nagoya starts Sunday, September 27, the same day as the Singapore final. A deep run here would have made that a tight turnaround. Losing on Thursday means she won’t have that problem.

After Nagoya she has two more tour events. The first is the Wuhan Open, a WTA 1000, from October 12 to 18. Then comes the Hong Kong Open, a WTA 250, from November 2 to 8. That’s where Mboko came back from 1-4 down in the third set to beat her in last year’s round of 16. Then the season wraps up at home, with the December homecoming match at the Philippine Arena.

Nobody plans a trip around losing their first match, and giving up leads in two straight sets will sting more than the ranking gap suggests. But of all the weeks this could have happened, this one costs her the least. She arrives in Nagoya rested and early, as the top-ranked player in a draw built around her. The title she came to Asia for hasn’t started yet.