Eala and Tjen bring a Southeast Asian 'sense of pride' to Roland Garros

Alexandra Eala and Janice Tjen have taken different routes to the women's top 40, but both began their journeys from a region that is rarely on the tennis map. In January, Eala, who turns 21 the day before Roland Garros starts, became the first player from the Philippines to break into the top 50. Tjen turned 24 earlier in May. When she entered the top 40 in February, she became the highest-ranked Indonesian woman since Yayuk Basuki, who reached the top 20 in 1997 and 1998.

While their far-flung countries are more than 1,500 kilometres apart, they share a maritime border. The impact of the sometime doubles partners, not only on the court but in the stands, has brought them the nickname 'SEASters'. The huge Filipino expat population flock to see their first tennis star everywhere she plays. "The start of the season is when I seriously noticed that people were really coming, they were buying tickets, they were taking time out of their day. It was like, wow," world number 38 Eala told the Served website.

She added she had been a "little bit in denial" about her popularity. "After I broke that barrier of not accepting, thinking, 'I don't think I'm really famous', every week they just kept coming, so I was, 'Okay, you have to accept it, absorb it, it's here, it's a really good position'." Her opponents notice. "I love that she has such an incredible fan base. I've seen the atmosphere. It's amazing," American Amanda Anisimova said in Dubai. Yet, Eala is cautious.

"I want to give back all the support they give me, but my first obligation is to myself," she told the Punto de Break website. "I try to find the healthiest way to deal with all of this, because I feel like many things could go wrong... It's all about balance." Representing a nation of 288 million, 41st-ranked Tjen is also proving a draw.

"I don't think too much about it," she told the Times of India ahead of a Billie Jean King Cup match in Delhi in April. "I know that as long as I keep working hard and giving my best, I always have Indonesia behind me. That's something I'm proud of." Two Thai women, Lanlana Tararudee and Mananchaya Sawangkaew are also hovering around the top 100.

"I'm super, super proud to be part of this group. And these are girls that I grew up with," said Eala. "I think Southeast Asia has its own little charm. We have certain humour that's very similar, maybe cultural things that we share. There's definitely that shared sense of pride for my region." Eala left home aged 12 to join the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca. She won the US Open junior singles in 2022. After breaking into the top 50 last season, she became the first person to hit with Nadal since his retirement over a year earlier.

"It was crazy," Eala told The National. "It was my first time ever hitting with him and I was so nervous and it was definitely physically demanding for me. "Just to say that you hit with Rafa, it's insane." She has Nadal's willingness to go to the limits. After beating Magdalena Frech in a tough three-setter at the Italian Open earlier this month, she said on Tennis Channel: "I told myself that I wasn't tired enough."

Eala is a lefty, like Nadal, but has not yet displayed the 14-time Roland Garros champion's love for clay. "I'm starting to build that relationship," she said in Rome. "This is my first season where I've really done these high-level tournaments." Tjen developed later on tennis scholarships at US universities, spending one year at Oregon and three at Pepperdine by the beach in Malibu. She has hardly any experience on clay and played her first tour-level matches on the surface in April.

"So I'm just taking things one at a time," she told the Roland Garros website. She also admitted she had previously held doubts about pursuing a tennis career. "Tennis demands a lot of you," she told the Times of India. "You basically have to travel every week of your life and that's a very tough demand for me. I don't like travelling as much and considering that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it and being away from home for that long I decided to quit, but I had a lot of good people around me and they kept convincing me to give it a try."