Alex Eala gets to bring the PH to Wimbledon with the 'sampaguita'

Alex Eala is Wimbledon Centre Court-bound and she's bringing the Philippines along with the sampaguita.

On Instagram, the 19-year-old tennis darling shared snaps of a white hair tie adorned with a single sampaguita flower she recieved form sports brand Nike, and in the caption zeroed in on the national flower. "Sampaguita — the flower of my country. A reminder of where I come from – and everything that brought me here," she began.

"Ang sampaguita ay paalala ng aking pinanggalingan at ng kulturang lagi kong dala-dala," she also wrote in Filipino.

Thanking the sports brand, Eala said "I get to bring all of that with me onto Wimbledon Centre Court — bitbit ko sa bawat galaw."

As of writing, Alex's post has already generated more than 70K double taps and 1,280 comments that celebrated and encouraged her.

Alex made the whole country proud after she reached the finals of the Eastbourne Open in June. She may have suffered a heartbreaking lost to Maya Joint in a grueling 4-6, 6-1, 6(10)-7(12) showdown on Saturday — one she called "one of the toughest losses" of her career — but the Filiipino tennis star reached a new career high, jumping to the no. 56 in the Women's Tennis Association rankings.

She is set to face Wimbledon defending champion Barbora Krejcikova in the first round of the said Grand Slam tournament on Tuesday at the famed Centre Court, which she has called her "dream match."

We're rooting for you Alex! Laban!

— LA, GMA Integrated News

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