{"id":529700,"date":"2026-03-09T22:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T22:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529700\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T22:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T22:22:08","slug":"yes-its-about-tennis-but-so-much-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529700\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, It\u2019s About Tennis, But So Much More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI think the WTA is a great platform for us professional women tennis players,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it gives us a lot of opportunities. I’m very grateful for everything they have built for us, giving us a chance to become these stars and do what we love on such grand stages.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be more big-stage moments coming soon for Eala, who will face Linda Noskova<\/a> for a spot in the quarterfinals on Tuesday in the California desert.<\/p>\n

If she is successful, that will make it four quarterfinals in the first two and a half months of the 2026 season \u2014 one more than she had all of last year.<\/p>\n

Eala\u2019s willingness to embrace her culture and share her success with the Filipino community creates the type of synergy that allows tennis to grow on the global stage. At 20, her tennis is already influential. Add in her charisma, humble nature and genuine willingness to be part of a sea change in the sport, and one begins to see the vast potential she represents.<\/p>\n

She may be just 20, but Eala is already demonstrating a very mature view of what tennis is becoming. She\u2019s delighted to be playing a role in expanding the reach of tennis, and she\u2019s even happier to know that she\u2019s not the only one helping grow the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are developing genuine interest in the sport,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother example of what I’m saying [occurred at the] Australian Open. There were four women from Southeast Asia in the main draw, so that attracted another demographic that maybe was not so present in other years. Another example is my friend Zeynep [Sonmez], she’s from Turkey, she’s been pulling in a lot of Turkish people and from the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think if tennis is able to develop in those countries, it will naturally grow the sport and naturally produce high-level competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think the WTA is a great platform for us professional women tennis players,\u201d she said. \u201cI think…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-529700","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\/529700","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=529700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}