{"id":352011,"date":"2025-12-16T15:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/352011\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T15:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:55:09","slug":"alex-eala-reaches-womens-singles-tennis-final-to-boost-philippines-medal-haul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/352011\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Eala reaches women’s singles tennis final to boost Philippines medal haul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexandra Eala guaranteed a gold or silver medal for the Philippines in the women’s singles tennis<\/a> at the 33rd Southeast Asian Games<\/a> in Thailand.<\/p>\n

The Filipina world No. 53 prevailed in her semi-final matchup with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-4 win against Thai player Naklo Thasaporn at the National Tennis Development Center on Tuesday (16 December).<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old is aiming to become the first Filipina since Maricris Fernandez in 1999 to win Southeast Asian Games women\u2019s singles gold. In fact, she would be only the third female player from the Philippines to conquer the title, and the first of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

One of the flagbearers for the Philippines at the SEA Games Opening Ceremony,\u00a0Eala will face another home hope in the gold medal match on Thursday (18 December).<\/p>\n

She will meet world No. 240\u00a0Mananchaya Sawangkaew, who progressed past Janice Tjen when the WTA No. 54 retired at 6-4 down with a breathing issue.<\/p>\n

Eala will add to her women\u2019s team bronze with a singles gold or silver now assured. She also has a shot for a third medal in the mixed doubles with partner\u00a0Francis Casey “Ni\u00f1o” Alcantara, where they play the semi-finals on Wednesday (17 December).<\/p>\n

Thailand 2025 marks\u00a0Eala\u2019s return to the regional competition, having last competed at the 2021 edition, held in 2022, in Vietnam. The Quezon City native won three bronze medals across women\u2019s singles, mixed doubles, and the women\u2019s team event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexandra Eala guaranteed a gold or silver medal for the Philippines in the women’s singles tennis at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-352011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}