{"id":234331,"date":"2026-01-12T14:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/234331\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T14:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:17:08","slug":"filipino-tennis-star-alex-eala-breaks-into-wta-top-50-for-first-time-following-asb-classic-semi-final-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/234331\/","title":{"rendered":"Filipino tennis star Alex Eala breaks into WTA top 50 for first time following ASB Classic semi-final run"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alex Eala has climbed into the world\u2019s top 50 for the first time in her career, rising to No 49 in the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/sports\/tennis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Women&#8217;s Tennis Association<\/a> (WTA).<\/p>\n<p>The 20-year-old Filipina produced an encouraging start to her 2026 season at the ASB Classic in Auckland, where she reached the semi-finals of the WTA 250 event. Eala recorded a straight-sets win over Poland\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/athletes\/magda-linette\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Magda Linette<\/a> in the quarter-finals before her run was ended by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/athletes\/xinyu-wang\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wang Xinyu<\/a> of the People&#8217;s Republic of China. Top seed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/athletes\/elina-svitolina\" data-tracking-payload=\"{&quot;implementation_provider&quot;:&quot;sed&quot;,&quot;content_geography&quot;:&quot;AF,AX,AL,DZ,AS,AD,AO,AI,AQ,AG,AR,AM,AW,AU,AT,AZ,BS,BH,BD,BB,BY,BE,BZ,BJ,BM,BT,BO,BQ,BA,BW,BV,BR,IO,UM,VG,VI,BN,BG,BF,BI,KH,CM,CA,CV,KY,CF,TD,CL,CN,CX,CC,CO,KM,CG,CD,CK,CR,HR,CU,CW,CY,CZ,DK,DJ,DM,DO,EC,EG,SV,GQ,ER,EE,ET,FK,FO,FJ,FI,FR,GF,PF,TF,GA,GM,GE,DE,GH,GI,GR,GL,GD,GP,GU,GT,GG,GN,GW,GY,HT,HM,VA,HN,HK,HU,IS,IN,ID,CI,IR,IQ,IE,IM,IL,IT,JM,JP,JE,JO,KZ,KE,KI,KW,KG,LA,LV,LB,LS,LR,LY,LI,LT,LU,MO,MK,MG,MW,MY,MV,ML,MT,MH,MQ,MR,MU,YT,MX,FM,MD,MC,MN,ME,MS,MA,MZ,MM,NA,NR,NP,NL,NC,NZ,NI,NE,NG,NU,NF,KP,MP,NO,OM,PK,PW,PS,PA,PG,PY,PE,PH,PN,PL,PT,PR,QA,RE,RO,RU,RW,BL,SH,KN,LC,MF,PM,VC,WS,SM,ST,SA,SN,RS,SC,SL,SG,SX,SK,SI,SB,SO,ZA,GS,KR,SS,ES,LK,SD,SR,SJ,SZ,SE,CH,SY,TW,TJ,TZ,TH,TL,TG,TK,TO,TT,TN,TR,TM,TC,TV,UG,UA,AE,GB,US,UY,UZ,VU,VE,VN,WF,EH,YE,ZM,ZW,XK&quot;,&quot;content_id&quot;:&quot;3ab49a3a-bd40-4bd3-88d5-e3e6881e3a5e&quot;,&quot;content_release_date_local_utc&quot;:&quot;2026-01-12T11:19:03.072Z&quot;,&quot;content_title&quot;:&quot;Alex Eala breaks into WTA top 50 for first time following ASB Classic semi-final run&quot;,&quot;tag&quot;:&quot;[\\&quot;discipline-tennis\\&quot;,\\&quot;noc-ph\\&quot;,\\&quot;newsclip\\&quot;,\\&quot;gender-female\\&quot;,\\&quot;asia-editorial\\&quot;,\\&quot;apple-news-all\\&quot;]&quot;,&quot;module_type&quot;:&quot;TextBlock&quot;,&quot;module_title&quot;:&quot;Alex Eala breaks into WTA top 50 for first time following ASB Classic semi-final run&quot;,&quot;section_level_1&quot;:&quot;news&quot;,&quot;section_level_2&quot;:&quot;alex-eala-breaks-into-wta-top-50&quot;,&quot;discipline&quot;:&quot;discipline-tennis&quot;,&quot;odf_id&quot;:&quot;TEN&quot;,&quot;module_instance&quot;:&quot;Inline&quot;,&quot;module_id&quot;:null}\" data-tracking=\"click\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elina Svitolina<\/a> went on to win the title.<\/p>\n<p>The result in Auckland lifted Eala one place from her previous career-high ranking of No 50 and marked another step forward after a steady rise on the WTA Tour over the past year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Eala has climbed into the world\u2019s top 50 for the first time in her career, rising to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-234331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}