In August 2026, Alex Eala beat the world number three in a final and became the first Filipino ever to win a WTA Tour title. Two weeks later she was seeded 17th at the US Open. The part nobody is talking about is geography. Four of her next seven tournaments are in Asia, two of them are places a Philippine passport gets you into without a visa, and one of them is Manila.
This is the cheapest window we will ever get to watch her play live, and it closes fast.
This is the full Alex Eala schedule 2026 to 2027, written for people who want to actually go, not just watch a livestream at 3am. For every tournament you get the dates, the venue, the visa situation for Philippine passport holders, the flight from Manila, and an honest read on whether the trip is worth it. Some stops are a long weekend away. Others need a visa application and a month of lead time. A few, I would skip. I keep this page updated as results come in, so bookmark it rather than screenshotting the table.
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Alex Eala schedule 2026 to 2027, the full list
Here is every confirmed and likely stop, with the visa reality for a Philippine passport attached to each one. This is the table to save.
| Dates | Tournament | City | Visa for Filipinos | Flight from Manila |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 21 to 27, 2026 | Singapore Tennis Open, WTA 500 | Singapore | Visa free, 30 days | 3h 40m direct |
| Sept 27 to Oct 3, 2026 | Asian Games tennis | Nagoya, Japan | Visa required | 4h 30m direct |
| Sept 28 to Oct 5, 2026 | China Open, WTA 1000 | Beijing | Visa required | She is skipping this |
| Oct 12 to 18, 2026 | Wuhan Open, WTA 1000 | Wuhan, China | Visa required | No direct route |
| Oct 19 week, 2026 | Japan Open | Osaka | Visa required | 4h 15m direct |
| Oct 26 week, 2026 | Pan Pacific Open | Tokyo | Visa required | 4h 30m direct |
| Nov 2 to 8, 2026 | Hong Kong Open, WTA 250 | Hong Kong | Visa free, 14 days | 2h direct |
| Nov 8 to 15, 2026 | WTA Finals | Indian Wells, USA | Visa required, long shot | 15h plus |
| Late Jan 2027 | Philippine Women’s Open, WTA 125 | Manila | No visa, no passport | You are already here |
| Jan 11 to 31, 2027 | Australian Open | Melbourne | Visa required, e600 | 8h 30m direct |
Singapore and the Asian Games are confirmed. Wuhan is her stated return to the tour. Osaka, Tokyo and Hong Kong are likely but not locked, which is normal this far out. Entry lists firm up two to three weeks before each event on the WTA site.
Where she stands right now, and why this window matters
As of September 4, 2026, Eala is ranked a career high number 18. She got there by winning the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, beating world number three Jessica Pegula in the final, plus Naomi Osaka and defending champion Leylah Fernandez on the way. That title made her the first Filipino, man or woman, to win a WTA Tour title.
At the US Open she is seeded 17 and into the third round for the first time, with a match against Iva Jovic scheduled for September 5. She sits 15th in the Race to the WTA Finals with 1,997 points, about 1,687 behind the eighth and final qualifying spot. The Finals run November 8 to 15 at Indian Wells, and realistically that is a stretch.
Here is why the travel window matters. At number 18 she still plays WTA 250 and 500 events where tickets cost less than a nice dinner in BGC. Once a player settles into the top 10 the schedule shifts toward the big mandatory events in Beijing, Madrid and Miami, where tickets are expensive and the trip is long. The cheap, close, small tournaments are exactly where she is right now.
The three easy trips: Singapore, Hong Kong, and Manila
If you only take one trip this whole run, take one of these three. No visa application, no show money, no interview.
Singapore Tennis Open, September 21 to 27
The Singapore Tennis Open moved up to WTA 500 status for 2026 and it is now the only WTA 500 in Southeast Asia. The field is stacked: Jessica Pegula, Mirra Andreeva, Amanda Anisimova and Barbora Krejcikova are all in, seven top 20 players total, in a compact 28 player singles draw. Janice Tjen of Indonesia is the other Southeast Asian direct entrant.
Philippine passport holders get 30 days visa free. Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, Scoot and Singapore Airlines all fly Manila to Changi in about three hours forty minutes, several times a day, and Cebu and Clark have direct options too. For more of these easy wins, our roundup of visa free Asian countries you can visit with a Philippine passport covers the rest.
Stay near the venue in Kallang rather than Orchard. It is cheaper, the MRT connection is direct, and you will not lose an hour each way after a night session. Compare places to stay around Kallang and the Sports Hub before the tournament week, because rates climb once the draw is announced.
Hong Kong Open, November 2 to 8
The cheapest trip on the calendar and the best value on it. The Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open is a WTA 250 at Victoria Park Tennis Stadium in Causeway Bay, a 32 player draw on outdoor hard courts, and early November in Hong Kong is warm days and cool evenings.
Philippine passport holders get 14 days visa free. The flight from Manila is two hours. Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong Express all run the route, often several times a day, and return fares in the low season regularly sit in the PHP 6,000 to 10,000 range if you book six to eight weeks out.
Check current Manila to Hong Kong fares for early November
The venue detail that matters: Victoria Park sits between Causeway Bay and Tin Hau MTR stations, in the middle of the city rather than out in a suburban sports complex. Watch an afternoon session, walk ten minutes, eat at a dai pai dong. In past years qualifying and opening day matches have been free to the public, though confirm that on the official tournament site for 2026 before planning around it.
Stay in Causeway Bay if the budget allows, or Tin Hau and North Point one or two stops away for noticeably less. Wan Chai is a good compromise.
Hong Kong also has one of the largest Filipino communities anywhere. If you have family or friends working there, this trip can cost you flights and tickets and almost nothing else.
Philippine Women’s Open, late January 2027
The one nobody has to fly for. The Philippine Women’s Open is a WTA 125 event held at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center in Malate, Manila. The first edition ran January 26 to 31, 2026, with Camila Osorio beating Donna Vekic in the final, and PHILTA signed a three year agreement with the WTA, so a 2027 edition is expected in the same late January window. Dates for 2027 were not published as of September 2026, so watch PHILTA and the WTA calendar.
Eala played the 2026 edition as a wildcard and reached the quarterfinals. Whether she plays in 2027 depends on her ranking and her Australian Open run, since the two overlap awkwardly, and that is worth saying plainly rather than promising she will be there.
Either way, for readers in Cebu, Davao, Iloilo or CDO this is world class tennis for the price of a domestic fare and two nights in Malate. Nothing else here comes close on cost.
The Japan stops: Nagoya, then Osaka and Tokyo
Japan gets three chances in five weeks, which makes one visa go a long way.
Asian Games, Nagoya, September 27 to October 3
This is the reason her schedule looks strange. Eala confirmed she is playing the Asian Games for the Philippines, which means skipping the China Open in Beijing, a mandatory WTA 1000, and reports say she risks a WTA fine for it. She chose the flag over the ranking points, and Philippine tennis has not won an Asian Games gold in over six decades.
Tennis runs September 27 to October 3 at the Higashiyama Park Tennis Center in Nagoya, inside the wider Aichi Nagoya Games window of September 19 to October 4. The tennis dates are narrower than the Games dates, which trips people up when booking.
Osaka and Tokyo, October
The Japan Open in Osaka starts the week of October 19 and the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo starts the week of October 26. Neither is confirmed for her yet, but both are natural fits in her Asian swing.
The practical point: Japan requires a visa for Philippine passport holders, and Japan opened its eVisa to Filipino tourists, though conditions apply and the rules keep changing. Check the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines for the current process before assuming anything. If you already hold a multiple entry Japan visa from an earlier trip, all three tournaments are covered by it.
Two tournaments a week apart also means one trip, two cities, and a two and a half hour Shinkansen ride in between. Our guide to Japan’s Golden Week explains how Japanese holidays wreck accommodation prices, and the same logic applies in autumn.
Check current Manila to Osaka fares for October
The China stops, and the visa that stops most Filipinos
Wuhan on October 12 to 18 is her stated return to the tour after Nagoya, and Ningbo and Guangzhou sit in the same stretch of the calendar. I am going to be honest with you about these.
Mainland China requires a visa for Philippine passport holders. There is a 30 day visa free arrangement for Hainan, visa on arrival in Shenzhen if you already hold a previous Chinese visa, and 24 hour visa free airport transit, but none of that gets you to Wuhan. It is an embassy application, supporting documents and a fee, for a tournament in a city with no direct flight from Manila.
Unless you already have a China visa or you are an OFW based in the region, skip these and put the money into Hong Kong in November. Same country, no visa, two hour flight.
Same reasoning for the Korea Open in Seoul in the September 21 to 28 week. South Korea also requires a visa, though our step by step guide to the South Korea visa for Filipino tourists covers the five year multiple entry option if Seoul was already on your list.
Australian Open 2027, the one to book now
The Australian Open runs January 11 to 31, 2027, with the main draw starting Sunday January 17 and the finals on January 30 and 31. Eala will be there. At number 18 she goes straight into the main draw with no qualifying, and Melbourne is the most Filipino friendly Grand Slam on the calendar simply because of who already lives there.
The number that matters: an AO Ground Pass starts at AUD 49, roughly PHP 2,200 at early September 2026 rates. That gets you into the grounds and every outside court, which is where most of the interesting early round tennis happens anyway. Tennis Australia says the price has not gone up since 2019.
Two catches. Early bird pricing runs only until November 30, 2026. And for the first time, daily Ground Pass allocations are capped, especially in week one, so they can and will sell out. Public sale opened August 13, 2026 through Ticketmaster.
Australia needs a visitor visa for Philippine passport holders, applied for online as a subclass 600. Give yourself two to three months. Philippine Airlines flies Manila to Melbourne direct in about eight and a half hours. Check that your passport has enough validity before you start, and if it does not, our guide to Philippine passport renewal for OFWs and digital nomads will save you a panic in December.
What each trip costs, in pesos
Rough all in cost for one person, three nights, mid range accommodation, one or two match sessions. Rates as of early September 2026: SGD 1 is about PHP 49, HKD 1 about PHP 8, JPY 1 about PHP 0.40, AUD 1 about PHP 45.
| Trip | Flights | 3 nights | Tickets | Food and transport | Rough total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manila to Singapore | PHP 8,000 to 14,000 | PHP 9,000 to 15,000 | PHP 3,000 to 6,000 | PHP 6,000 | PHP 26,000 to 41,000 |
| Manila to Hong Kong | PHP 6,000 to 11,000 | PHP 7,500 to 13,000 | PHP 2,000 to 5,000 | PHP 5,000 | PHP 20,500 to 34,000 |
| Manila to Osaka | PHP 12,000 to 22,000 | PHP 8,000 to 14,000 | PHP 2,500 to 6,000 | PHP 7,000 | PHP 29,500 to 49,000 |
| Manila to Melbourne | PHP 35,000 to 60,000 | PHP 12,000 to 20,000 | PHP 2,200 up | PHP 9,000 | PHP 58,200 to 91,000 |
| Domestic to Manila | PHP 2,500 to 6,000 | PHP 4,500 to 8,000 | low, TBC | PHP 3,500 | PHP 10,500 to 17,500 |
Fares move a lot. These are booked six to eight weeks ahead, outside Philippine holidays. Travelling during Christmas break, Holy Week or a long weekend adds 30 to 60 percent to everything, so check the Philippine public holiday calendar before you lock dates. You can compare fares across all of these routes on Trip.com in one place.
Tournament ticket prices for Singapore, Hong Kong and the 2027 Manila event had not all been published as of September 2026. Treat the ticket column as an estimate and confirm on each tournament’s official site.
Watching from home, and a few practical tips
Not every match needs a plane ticket. Philippine time is the same as Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China, one hour behind Japan and Korea, and two hours behind Melbourne in January because of daylight saving. So the Asian swing plays at civilised hours here. Only the US events force the 2am wake up.
A few things worth doing before any of these trips:
Sort connectivity before you land. An eSIM is faster than queueing at an airport counter and cheaper than roaming, and you will want data for the live order of play, which changes daily. Grab a regional Asia eSIM with Airalo and activate it before you board.
Get insurance, especially for Japan and Australia. Medical costs in both are brutal without cover, and a twisted ankle in a stadium queue is not a hypothetical. See what SafetyWing costs for your trip dates.
Buy ground passes, not show court seats. At WTA 250 and 500 events the outside courts are open with a general ticket and you can stand two metres from a top 20 player warming up. That access disappears at Grand Slams.
Watch the order of play, not the calendar. Nobody knows which day she plays until the draw comes out, usually two days before the tournament starts. If you can only afford one session, wait for the draw. And bring a hat, water and sunscreen: afternoon hard courts in Singapore and Hong Kong are punishing.
Frequently asked questions
What is Alex Eala’s next tournament?
After the US Open, the Singapore Tennis Open from September 21 to 27, 2026, then the Asian Games in Nagoya from September 27 to October 3.
Is Alex Eala playing in the Philippines in 2027?
The Philippine Women’s Open at Rizal Memorial in Manila is expected again in late January 2027 under PHILTA’s three year WTA agreement, but the 2027 dates and her entry were not confirmed as of September 2026.
Why is Alex Eala skipping the China Open?
She chose to represent the Philippines at the Asian Games in Nagoya, which overlaps with the Beijing event. The China Open is a mandatory WTA 1000, so she reportedly risks a fine for missing it.
Which of her tournaments can Filipinos attend without a visa?
Singapore in September, 30 days visa free. Hong Kong in November, 14 days visa free. And Manila in January, where you need nothing at all.
What is Alex Eala’s current world ranking?
Career high number 18, reached in August 2026 after her Washington title. She was seeded 17 at the 2026 US Open.
How much is an Australian Open ground pass?
From AUD 49, about PHP 2,200. Early bird pricing runs to November 30, 2026, and daily allocations are capped for the first time in 2027.
Go while the tickets are still cheap
Two years ago Alex Eala was a name Filipino fans defended in comment sections. Now she has a WTA title, wins over Gauff, Rybakina and Pegula, and a seeding at Flushing Meadows. The gap to the top five is closing, and when it closes the tournaments get bigger, the tickets get pricier, and the front row stops being an option for normal people.
Singapore is three weeks away. Hong Kong is two months away and costs less than a Boracay long weekend. Manila might not cost you a flight at all. Pick one, book it, and go watch her while you can still hear the ball come off her racket.
About the Author
Bianca Rei is a Filipino traveler, entrepreneur, and problem-solver who has called Serbia home for many years. She has been following Two Monkeys Travel Group since 2014, back when she was simply a reader dreaming, traveling, and collecting stories of her own, so being able to contribute to the blog now feels a little like coming full circle.
Bianca runs Rodi Solutions, where she helps people and businesses navigate life and business in Serbia, alongside website design, development, and management. When she is not working, she is usually traveling, boxing, chasing another adventure, or spending time with her family.
Find her work at rodi.consulting, or get to know her beyond work at biancarei.net.
