{"id":427935,"date":"2026-01-23T11:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T11:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/427935\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T11:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T11:32:15","slug":"wnba-drops-2026-schedule-amid-ongoing-cba-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/427935\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Drops 2026 Schedule Amid Ongoing CBA Negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Naomi Osaka advanced to the third round of the <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/wta-rankings-shift-as-tennis-stars-gear-up-for-2026-australian-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">2026 Australian Open<\/a> with a three-set victory over Sorana Cirstea on Thursday. <\/p>\n<p>But the hard-fought win was overshadowed by a heated exchange at the net and a subsequent public apology from the former Japanese fan favorite.<\/p>\n<p>After Osaka defeated the unseeded 35-year-old 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 at Margaret Court Arena, the two shared a tense handshake before Cirstea reportedly called Osaka out for her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DT0Qp2iEVhw\/?img_index=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">on-court conduct<\/a>. The issue apparently centered on Osaka\u2019s habit of shouting &#8220;Come on!&#8221; to celebrate points, specifically between Cirstea\u2019s first and second serves \u2014 a move the Romanian considered both a distraction and a breach of sportsmanship.<\/p>\n<p>In her immediate postmatch interview, Osaka dismissed Cirstea&#8217;s complaints. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Apparently a lot of &#8216;come-ons&#8217; that she was angry about, but whatever,&#8221; Osaka said. &#8220;I think this was her last Australian Open, so, okay, sorry she was mad about it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, during her subsequent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iECxjCQSWpk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">press conference<\/a>, Osaka apologized for her dismissive tone.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a little confused. I guess that emotions were very high for her,&#8221; Osaka said. &#8221; I also want to apologize. I think the first couple of things that I said on the court were disrespectful. I don&#8217;t like disrespecting people. That&#8217;s not what I do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Osaka went on to clarify that her vocal outbursts are self-motivating and not an attempt to rattle her opponent. <\/p>\n<p>Cirstea, who recently announced that the 2026 season will be her last on the <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/wta-tour-signs-landmark-mercedes-benz-partnership-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">WTA Tour<\/a>, later downplayed the incident. She called it a &#8220;five-second exchange between two players,&#8221; insisting that &#8220;there was no drama.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Osaka, the No. 16 seed, will next face unseeded Australian Maddison Inglis in the third round on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>How to watch Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open this week<\/p>\n<p>No. 16 Naomi Osaka takes the court against Australia&#8217;s Maddison Inglis this Friday (time TBA), live on ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>  <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka advanced to the third round of the 2026 Australian Open with a three-set victory over Sorana&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[92879,178575,178576,178577,178578,177562,104805,4657,49,735,48,4233,104807,726,3459,2803,3460,3457,4658,3461,104252,82,172781,45963,630,19368,77890,143582],"class_list":["post-427935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-2025-wnba-finals","tag-2026-fiba-world-cup","tag-2026-wnba-all-star-game","tag-2026-wnba-commissioners-cup","tag-2026-wnba-playoffs","tag-2026-wnba-schedule","tag-2026-wnba-season","tag-breanna-stewart","tag-ca","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-canada","tag-cba","tag-cba-negotiations","tag-chicago-sky","tag-dallas-wings","tag-indiana-fever","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-paige-bueckers","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-portland-fire","tag-sports","tag-status-quo-period","tag-toronto-tempo","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-expansion","tag-wnba-rookie-of-the-year","tag-work-stoppage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}