\n Published\u00a0Jul 28, 2026 12:59 pm
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\n Updated\u00a0Jul 28, 2026 01:00 pm\n <\/p>\n
Alex Eala’s rapid rise continues to capture the attention of tennis’ biggest stars, with former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka and Japanese great Kei Nishikori joining the growing list of admirers of the Filipina sensation.<\/p>\n
Nishikori believes the 21-year-old has what it takes to break into the WTA Top 10, while Osaka hailed Eala as an emerging role model whose success and character make her an inspiration to young players.<\/p>\n
Their glowing remarks came as Eala opens her North American hard-court swing campaign at the Mubadala DC Open in Washington DC, United States this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that’s super flattering coming from Naomi and Kei,\u201d Eala said when told of their comments in an interview with Dyan Castillejo<\/p>\n
\u201cLike you said, two tennis greats and two Asians who I look up to,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Eala admitted growing up watching Nishikori, who became the first Asian man to reach a Grand Slam singles final at the 2014 US Open, while also drawing inspiration from Osaka\u2019s remarkable career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have been very successful, that’s for sure, and I remember I would watch Kei a lot when I was younger and of course, Naomi blew up so much each time that she won the four Grand Slams. She’s been doing so much for fashion and being a mom, so that’s amazing to hear from them,\u201d Eala said.<\/p>\n
Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, described Eala as one of the brightest young stars in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know much about Alex, but I think she’s incredible,\u201d Osaka said. \u201cI think she’s a star, and it’s just really cool to have someone like her that, I guess, people can look up to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I think it’s amazing that she’s such an inspiration. Really love hearing her talk because it’s really cool the things that she says,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Nishikori was equally impressed, saying Eala has all the tools to become one of the world’s elite players.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe can be top 10 any time if she can stay healthy and play good, mentally stay tough,\u201d said Nishikori, who is set to retire at the end of this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m actually really happy. She has the most potential, I think, among many Asians. … I hope she can — yeah, Naomi and Eala can stay up there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Eala is battling fellow Asian in Chinese wildcard Zheng Qinwen in the opening round early Wednesday, July 29 (Philippine time).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published\u00a0Jul 28, 2026 12:59 pm \u00a0|\u00a0 Updated\u00a0Jul 28, 2026 01:00 pm Alex Eala’s rapid rise continues to capture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41996,41997,41998,4748,8,41999,23628,42000,85,4157],"class_list":["post-64951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-osaka","tag-alex","tag-eala","tag-earns","tag-from","tag-japan","tag-kei","tag-naomi","tag-nishikori","tag-osaka","tag-praises"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}