You know the feeling. Your break is almost over, you should be walking back to the pantry, and instead you hunch over your phone in a corner of the void deck watching a small screen where a girl from home is trading forehands with someone ranked in the world's top ten. The group chat is going crazy. Somebody types "GRABE SI ALEX" in all caps for the third time. Somebody else sends the flag emoji. For a few minutes you forget you are tired, you forget it is a Tuesday, you forget you are far from home. That is what Alex Eala does to a room full of kababayans.
This month, you can stop watching her on a screen. Alex Eala is playing the Singapore Tennis Open at the OCBC Arena in Kallang, a short train ride from where most of us live and work. She will be in the same building as you, hitting the same ball you have been screaming at through your phone. For once, the pride of Philippine tennis is not in New York or Paris or Melbourne. She is here, in our city, and getting to her costs less than a fancy dinner.
Sino nga ba si Alex, at bakit tayo kinikilig
If you have somehow missed the noise, let us catch you up. Alex Eala is 21 years old, from the Philippines, and this year she climbed to world number 18. That number carries weight. She is the highest-ranked Southeast Asian in the history of the women's tour, ahead of Indonesia's Yayuk Basuki and Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn, who both topped out at number 19 in their careers. A Filipina now sits above all of them.
She keeps writing firsts for us. She became the first Filipina to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam, at Wimbledon this year. She won her first tour-level title at the Mubadala DC Open in Washington, a WTA 500 event, the first Filipina to lift a trophy at this level. Before that, she reached the semifinals of a WTA 1000 in Miami, beating a string of higher-ranked players along the way. Two weeks ago she pushed into the third round of the US Open before Iva Jovic stopped her run on 5 September. Then she packed her bags for Singapore.
And the part that gets me the most: she wanted to come. "I love playing in Southeast Asia, it always makes me feel so at home," she said when the tournament announced her. Read that line again, kabayan: the girl carrying our flag up the rankings says our part of the world feels like home. The least we can do is show up and make sure it does.
She is playing right here, sa Kallang
The Singapore Tennis Open runs from 21 to 27 September at the OCBC Arena, the indoor hall at the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang. This is the sole WTA 500 tournament in Southeast Asia, which means the field runs deep. Alongside Eala you get Jessica Pegula, the world number three, teenage star Mirra Andreeva at number five, and Amanda Anisimova at number ten. You will not need to fly anywhere to watch tennis this good.
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Now the money talk, because we are kababayans and we plan around payday. Tickets go through SISTIC, at sistic.com.sg, the same official seller you use for concerts. Do not buy from a stranger on Telegram or a "friend of a friend" reselling at double the price. The same rule we keep repeating for BINI and every other hot ticket applies here: if it is not SISTIC, walk away.
Prices cover a wide range. SISTIC lists the tournament from S$16 up to S$1,230, with the top end covering ACES Club hospitality for the people with money to burn. Somewhere in the middle is a seat that fits your budget. There are concession tickets too, half price, for seniors 60 and above, for anyone 18 and under, for full-time national servicemen, and for persons with disabilities. That brings the cheapest seats down to around S$8. Bring proof of eligibility, because there are random checks at the door and anyone who cannot show it has to upgrade to a full-price ticket. Going with the barkada helps too: four tickets or more in the same category and session takes 10 percent off.
The weekday sessions, from Monday the 21st to Friday the 25th, run in two blocks, one late morning and one in the evening around 6:30. If you finish work at six, the evening session suits you. Saturday the 26th holds the semifinals and Sunday the 27th crowns the champion, and those big days sell out first. As of the announcement, the three-day passes were already gone, though single-day and session tickets were still around. Book ahead, kabayan. This is the rare weekend when planning your seat saves you money.
One more tip for the tightest budgets. The qualifying rounds on 19 and 20 September, the Saturday and Sunday before the main draw, are free to watch. Eala will be in the main draw, not the qualifiers, so you will not catch her those two days. Still, if you want to soak up a professional tournament, feel the atmosphere, and let the kids see live tennis without spending a peso, that free weekend is a gift.
Getting there, and the small stuff
The OCBC Arena sits right at the Singapore Sports Hub, and the easy way in is Stadium station on the Circle Line, which drops you at Kallang Wave Mall next door. Kallang station on the East-West Line works too if that suits your route better. Before you head out, top up your travel card so you are not stuck at the gate. If you have been caught out since the AXS machines stopped reloading EZ-Link and SimplyGo cards, our guide on where kabayan top up now will sort you before the trip.
Bring water, wear something you can clap and jump in, and get there in good time to find your seat before her match starts. Phones are fine for photos between points, so you will have your own clip to send to the group chat, no screen-watching required this time.
The bits that might change, so check first
Ticket prices, session times, and which players show up can shift as the week nears, and injuries or late withdrawals happen in tennis. Confirm the live schedule and seat availability on SISTIC and on the tournament page at wtatennis.com before you pay, and check the day's order of play so you know when Eala is on court. A quick look the night before saves you a wasted trip.
So clear your calendar for the week of the 21st, message the barkada, and pool your padala-week budget for one good seat. The moment she walks out and you hear a Kallang crowd chanting a name from home, you will feel that thing we all chase out here, the reminder that we brought a piece of the Philippines with us. Go cheer your heart out, kabayan. Laban, Alex.
For those of us used to catching big Singapore events from the outside, this one feels different. The F1 cars will roar around Marina Bay a couple of weeks later, and plenty of kababayans will watch that race from a bridge for free. Tennis works another way. You buy a seat, you get close, and you can hear the ball come off the strings. If you have ever gone to an OPM concert here to feel a little less homesick, you already know why being in the room matters.
