{"id":67231,"date":"2026-08-01T02:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/67231\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T02:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:40:08","slug":"alex-eala-to-face-naomi-osaka-in-dc-open-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/67231\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Eala to face Naomi Osaka in DC Open semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>  Published  August 1, 2026 10:12am  <\/p>\n<p>     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=gmanetwork.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"gma-preferred-source-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">  Add GMA on Google <\/a> <\/p>\n<p> Make this your preferred source to get more updates from this publisher on Google. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmanetwork.com\/news\/tracking\/alexeala\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Alexandra &#8220;Alex&#8221; Eala<\/a> will face four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka for the first time in her career in the semifinals of the DC Open on Saturday (early Sunday, Philippine time).<\/p>\n<p>Osaka, a former world No. 1 who is currently ranked No. 13, captured four Grand Slam singles titles, winning the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021 and the US Open in 2018 and 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese star reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon before bowing to Karolina Muchova. She also advanced to the final of the Bad Homburg Open, where she again lost to Muchova.<\/p>\n<p>Eala said she is looking forward to facing the former world No. 1.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She is, of course, such an accomplished player. I think she&#8217;s made waves on and off the tennis court for so many reasons, and there&#8217;s so much respect to her for that. And, you know, I&#8217;m really excited,&#8221; Eala said.<\/p>\n<p>Osaka booked her semifinal berth by defeating Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals. In the Round of 16, she advanced after Ashlyn Krueger retired with Osaka leading 6-3, 3-1.<\/p>\n<p>Eala, meanwhile, enters the semifinals fresh off a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmanetwork.com\/news\/sports\/othersports\/996981\/alex-eala-vs-elina-svitolina-dc-open-quarterfinals\/story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">6-3, 6-4 upset of world No. 10 Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The other semifinals match will feature Jessica Pegula and Diana Shnaider.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014JKC, GMA News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published August 1, 2026 10:12am Add GMA on Google Make this your preferred source to get more updates&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[43699,41858,8,4469,85],"class_list":["post-67231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-osaka","tag-alex-eala","tag-dc-open","tag-japan","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-osaka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67231","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=67231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}