Rising tennis star Alexandra Eala may now be carving her own path on the professional circuit, but like many young players, she grew up idolizing legends of the sport. In a recent candid and heartwarming recollection, the Filipina tennis prodigy shared how she first met her childhood hero, Rafael Nadal—and it’s the kind of story most fans can relate to.
“The first time I met Rafa, I was on the way to his academy,” said Eala in an interview with WTA. “Oh my gosh! I was on the way to his academy because I was going to try it out before, before we committed, I was just going to try it out for a week.”
“And then we ran into him in the airport, in the Madrid airport, and we, it's kind of embarrassing to say- we kind of ran after, like, not run after, but, you know, we were fangirling, and then, and then we told him, we’re going to your academy and stuff like that,” recalled Eala. “And then he took a picture with us, and I'll try to find that picture, yeah, but that was the first time I actually met Rafa.”
Eala then suddenly remembers that she had actually met Rafael Nadal well before the Madrid encounter. She excitedly recounted how Rafa and his uncle Toni Nadal had visited Manila in the past.
“Oh my gosh, that was the second time,” she exclaims as she digs into her memory books. “The first time, I met Rafa he was in, he came to my school in Manila for a clinic before his like, a tour- you know, before opening his academy,” recalled Eala.
“I was probably 10, and it was a big, it was a big event, and they literally held the clinic in the courts of my school, and I remember Tony fed me a couple of balls. Yeah, there's a video on YouTube of it. And I talked to Tony about that, that he fed me a few balls while he was in Manila. I mean, he doesn't remember, probably, but I swear, I swear it happened,” she chuckles.
The impact of top tennis players like Rafael Nadal, extends beyond cultures and generations and it is safe to say that multiple professional players on the tour have picked up a racquet, simply because of the way the legends of the sport behaved on and off the court. As Eala forges her own path on the WTA tour, the chance meeting with Rafael Nadal will forever be etched in her memories.
