{"id":423448,"date":"2026-01-19T15:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T15:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/423448\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T15:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T15:18:08","slug":"alex-eala-is-the-most-popular-player-in-tennis-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/423448\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Eala Is the Most Popular Player in Tennis Right Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 The most remarkable moment on the second day of the Australian Open was not what happened on any of the courts, but what happened on Court 6\u2019s periphery.<\/p>\n<p>By acclamation of the throngs who waited in vain for a chance to see her on the ludicrously limited stage, 20-year-old Alex Eala of the Philippines was coronated as the most popular player in tennis right now. <\/p>\n<p>Though she\u2019s ranked only 49th, and was playing in the main draw of the Australian Open for the very first time, that crown is now hers, indisputably. Now, it\u2019s just a question of how soon the tennis world realizes it and adjusts accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>To read more on Eala\u2019s sudden superstardom\u2014including statistics, quotes from Eala and her opponent Alycia Parks, Filipino fans, a statement from Tennis Australia on its scheduling, and more in this 2,500-word article\u2014please subscribe to Bounces! Pasasalamat!-Ben<\/p>\n<p data-attrs=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.benrothenberg.com\/subscribe?&amp;gift=true&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Give a gift subscription&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}\" data-component-name=\"ButtonCreateButton\" class=\"button-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.benrothenberg.com\/subscribe?&amp;gift=true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"button primary\" target=\"_blank\">Give a gift subscription<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-attrs=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.benrothenberg.com\/subscribe?group=true&amp;coupon=e328333c&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Get 20% off a group subscription&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}\" data-component-name=\"ButtonCreateButton\" class=\"button-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.benrothenberg.com\/subscribe?group=true&amp;coupon=e328333c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"button primary\" target=\"_blank\">Get 20% off a group subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 The most remarkable moment on the second day of the Australian Open was not what&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-423448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423448","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=423448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}