The tennis pro is no stranger to athletics as members from both sides of her family are well-known athletes in the Philippines. At the 1985 Southeast Asian Games, Rizza Maniego-Eala, her mother, won the bronze medal in the women’s 100 meter backstroke.
Rizza’s sister and brother are current or former national tennis players of the University of the Philippines (UP) tennis team. Miko, Alex’s older brother, is a rising tennis star at the Rafael Nadal Academy.
At the Australian Open 2020 junior competition, then 17-year-old Miko came close to making the main draw but lost in the final.
In November last year, he also won the Hellenic Bank Masters Tennis Academy tournament in Cyprus, dedicating the victory to his late grandfather Bobby Maniego. The latter had introduced the two Eala brothers to tennis. Noli Eala, a former sports analyst and PBA commissioner who led professional league basketball from 2003 to 2005, is also linked to Alex.
