Cover Alex Eala is among the young tennis stars competing for the title at the 2026 Singapore Tennis Open (Photo: @alex.eala/Instagram)
Alex Eala is among the young tennis stars competing for the title at the 2026 Singapore Tennis Open (Photo: @alex.eala/Instagram)
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Alex Eala and more next-generation stars are ready to seize the moment at the Singapore Tennis Open
Alex Eala arrives at the Singapore Tennis Open with a bigger profile and a more open draw after Jessica Pegula withdrew following her US Open semifinal run. The Filipina, along with Mirra Andreeva and Amanda Anisimova, is among the young players looking to make the most of the tournament, which runs from September 21 to 27 at Singapore’s indoor OCBC Arena.
Elevated from WTA 250 to WTA 500 status this year, the event is one of just 18 tournaments at that level worldwide, with a US$1.2 million purse and a 28-player draw. As the WTA’s Asian Swing gets underway, it brings together established names and rising talent. Here are six players to watch.
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Alex Eala: the Filipina lefty turning Singapore into a home game
Alex Eala, the 21-year-old Rafa Nadal Academy graduate, enters as the tournament’s third seed and a career-high world no 18, fresh off a maiden WTA title at the DC Open in August, where she stunned Jessica Pegula in the final. A first-round bye—courtesy of Pegula’s late withdrawal—gives Eala a clean run into the second round. Though she fell in the US Open third round to Iva Jovic, the highest-ranked Filipina in WTA history returns to a city that holds real sentimental value, backed by Singapore’s sizeable Filipino diaspora.
Mirra Andreeva: the 19-year-old top seed chasing the world summit
With Pegula out, the world no 5 inherits top billing in Kallang. Mirra Andreeva’s rise from teenage prodigy to Grand Slam champion was sealed in June, when she beat Maja Chwalinska to become the youngest French Open winner since Monica Seles in 1992. Her game is built on mature court craft—patient rally construction, sharp anticipation and a defence that frustrates aggressive hitters into errors. Andreeva starts as one of the clear favourites to add a WTA 500 trophy to her rapidly growing résumé.
Amanda Anisimova: the power-striker eyeing indoor glory
A Grand Slam finalist, Amanda Anisimova brings some of the tour’s biggest, flattest groundstrokes to Kallang’s climate-controlled hard courts. Her serve and baseline power are tailor-made for indoor conditions, where there’s no wind to blunt her timing and no humidity to slow the bounce. After a resurgent season that returned her to the tour’s upper echelon, Anisimova arrives as one of the field’s genuine title threats, and a dangerous obstacle for anyone hoping to reach the final in Kallang.
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Talia Gibson: the Australian qualifier who cracked the world’s top 100
Talia Gibson entered 2026 ranked outside the top 100 and left Indian Wells as a household name, upsetting top-20 players Ekaterina Alexandrova, Clara Tauson and Jasmine Paolini. Later in 2026, she achieved a career-high no 55 and secured automatic Grand Slam entry for the first time. The 22-year-old West Australian steps into Singapore as a replacement entrant with genuine scalps on her résumé and little pressure to lose.
Iva Jovic: the 18-year-old American who beat Eala at the US Open
The 18-year-old delivered the most eye-catching upset of the American hard-court season, edging Alex Eala in a three-hour US Open third-round thriller. A top-20 player already, Iva Jovic’s game is built on relentless lateral defence and deep, punishing ball placement that wears opponents down over long rallies. That win over one of the tour’s most in-form players confirms what scouts have long suspected—Jovic is a genuine threat to any seed drawn against her in Kallang.
Alycia Parks: the American power-server ready to trouble any seed
Alycia Parks arrives having already tangled with the tournament’s biggest storyline twice this year, splitting two hard-fought three-setters with Alex Eala, most recently a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 loss in Toronto. Built around one of the tour’s biggest serves, the 25-year-old American has the raw power to trouble any seed on a fast indoor court, even from outside the top 80. Singapore offers her a rubber match on neutral ground.
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After more than a decade in lifestyle media, Clifford has mastered the art of writing seriously about things that are fun—and writing fun things about people who take themselves very seriously. At Tatler Asia, he helped steer its flagship lists, Tatler’s Most Influential and Asia’s Most Stylish. And today, he leads T-Labs, Tatler Asia’s content innovation hub, where he continues the noble pursuit of lifestyle storytelling, spinning stories on wealth, entertainment, necessary style, Hallyu, Hollywood, beauty and more for audiences across Asia.
