WTA and women’s empowerment

Last October 13, Julia Wall-Clarke, the WTA Vice President for PR and Communications, emailed me about my column titled “WTA crazy, cruel for excluding Eala in finals.” She said very kindly that Eala was not eligible for the event as she is not in the top 10 of the WTA rankings. I apologize for the error. Part of Ms. Julia’s letter read: “The WTA Finals has eight singles places, with each place determined by points earned during the season on the Race leaderboard, rather than the rolling world rankings.” “The top seven players qualify automatically. The eighth place goes to the highest-ranked current-year Grand Slam singles champion positioned between eighth and 20th in the Race who has not already qualified. If no player meets that criterion, the eighth-ranked player qualifies,” she added. Perhaps, my being a compatriot of Eala got the better of me when I wrote the column. Well, how come many Filipinos are going gaga over Eala? Including me, sometimes. A bit of explanation from my side is warranted. Truth is, I feel very lucky to see in my lifetime the rise of a hardworking and humble Filipina in the sport where prominent figures such as Maria Sharapova, Anna Ivanovic, and the…