LITERALLY living inside the Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy in Mallorca, Spain for three years and counting, Filipina ace Alex Eala observed firsthand how tennis champions are made.

In fact, in some way, the 15-year-old sees herself treading the same ground and facing the same challenges as World No. 2 Rafael Nadal himself, who again bagged another Slam in his pocket today, after defeating World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in straight sets, in the French Open tournament.

It also helped, too, that she literally sees him on the court.

“Oftentimes, he plays beside me or on the court next to me. It’s so inspiring, even if you’re just watching him play from afar, you can learn a lot,” Eala said during a virtual press conference with the Philippine media on Sunday night.

Aside from being an oustanding athlete and tennis coach, she also considers the 34-year-old Nadal as an inspiring mentor.

“One of the biggest things I can take away from Rafa is his humility. [He’s] so grounded. He’s achieved more than I can dream of, and the fact that he’s achieved so much and he’s still very nice to everyone here, so down-to-earth, it’s very admirable for him,” she said.

It’s from him that Alex takes inspiration in celebrating her success in a very modest way. Just last Friday, she made the whole country proud after a gallant semifinals finish in her French Open stint.

Eala lost to Elsa Jacquemot, conceding the home ground to the French netter, 6-3, 6-2

Nelly Korda believes she will have to tame a “beast” of a course to maintain her incredible run of form and win the US Women’s Open.

Korda is a massive favourite to secure her third major title at Lancaster Country Club after winning six of her last seven events.

The world number one has beaten a combined total of 883 players in that stretch, losing to just six by finishing seventh in the Cognizant Founders Cup and is 74 under par for her six strokeplay tournaments.

Korda’s dominant run includes her second major victory in the Chevron Championship but she is expecting a tough test in Philadelphia, with the course revised and lengthened to a par-70 of 6,583 yards since it last hosted the US Open in 2015.

“It’s a beast of a golf course,” said Korda, who was not in the field nine years ago.

“Off the tee, if you don’t hit it into the fairways, it sinks down into the rough. These greens are small and very, very undulated.

Witnessing history. 💯

With her win at the Mizuho Americas Open, @nellykorda became the fourth LPGA Tour player to win six times before June 1st.

She hit 73% of fairways at Liberty National, and lowered her Tour-leading scoring average to 69.2. #Qi10Driver pic.twitter.com/VRucMGj8KN

— TaylorMade Golf (@TaylorMadeGolf) May 20, 2024

“It’s going to test every aspect of just your golf game and even your mental game because it’s a major championship.

“You can get ahead of yourself, get lost in the moment. If you make a couple of mistakes here and there, sometimes it can get away from you, but it’s going to test every aspect of your game out there this week.

“Visually it looks so much shorter than it is. There’s bunkers that you see that you think you’re going to carry that you end up maybe 10 yards short of.

“The rough is very thick around the greens too. I think they’ve cut the grass around the greens so that, with the false fronts, it comes all the way down to the back where it’s a little thicker.

“Obviously I go into every week wanting to win, but there is a sense that sometimes that’s not realistic.

“For me, I need to give 100 per cent of myself every single day to, not just my golf,(but) my family, my workouts, life outside of golf. For me, that’s the number one thing for me.”

You wouldn’t want to face the Kordas on a family sports day.

With tennis and golf major titles decorating the mantlepiece, the Americans are one of the biggest sporting dynasties in the world right now – with all five family members boasting a rich CV.

Dad Petr is former Australian Open tennis champion; mum Regina cracked the top 30 in the same sport and son Sebastian is one of the emerging names from the US scene and on the fringes of the top 20.

Oldest daughter Jessica has nine top 10 major golf finishes and is one of the best players around. And then, there’s Nelly – the best player in the world.

When it comes to some light family competition, the stakes are incredibly high.

“We always make fun of the boys because we say that the girls in the Korda family are the only ones that are the Olympians and the boys are not,” Korda said.

“So, we have that above them in the family.”

Korda is in Paris for the defence of her Olympic title, and if the women’s event can even generate half as much drama as the men did last week, then we’re in for something special at Le Golf National.

Seventeen of the world’s top 19 players are here this week, including more than a dozen major winners, but all eyes will be firmly fixed on Korda.

The 26-year-old almost transcends her sport and this season, she has gone to spectacular heights.

Korda won a scarcely believable six tournaments from just eight starts, including her second major at April’s Chevron Championship.

But on the third hole of her first round of the ninth event at the US Open, she unravelled spectacularly – and has been unable to knit her game back together since.

Korda went into the water three times on the 12th hole, after starting on the 10th, shot a 10-over-par 80 and then missed the cut.

She followed that up with a 76 at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give, and missed the cut again, and then an 81 at the KPMG PGA Championship for a third straight early exit.

From barely being able to miss, to barely being able to putt, Korda quickly announced a break ahead of the Olympics and arrives in Paris after four weeks’ rest.

“The game of golf of is a funny game,” Korda said.

“Sometimes you feel on top of the world and in a matter of a couple seconds, you just feel like you’re on the bottom of the sea.

“So, it definitely makes you appreciate the good golf that you play, but yeah, I mean, you have to have a mix of everything in there and everything can’t always go well.”

It’s lucky, therefore, that she has the support of a family who know a thing or two about dealing with the highs and lows of elite level sport.

“My parents have always said it’s very important to put your head down, grind, go to the gym – but it’s also important to recharge your battery,” she added.

“Because sometimes with all the obligations you maybe have off the golf course, and all the emotions you feel on the golf course, all the adrenaline, it tears at you a little bit.

“It’s good to kind of step away and recharge your batteries and come back a little bit fresher.”

Korda tees off at 9.55am, in the group just after Charley Hull, the world number eight who is spearheading Team GB’s charge alongside Georgia Hall.

After missing out in Tokyo, Hull – who finished seventh in Rio – is excited to be back in red, white, and blue, except for one minor snag.

“I do smoke on the course,” she said on Tuesday. “It’s a habit but I won’t do this week. Yes, it is just something I do.”

Smoking is banned from all Olympic venues and athletes are no exception, which is a problem for Hull – who went viral earlier this year when images of her puffing away on the course went viral.

Will it affect her? “I think it will,” she said. “Because it relaxes me a little bit. But it is what it is.

“Being able to play in the Olympics is a dream.