{"id":2575,"date":"2026-08-02T12:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2026-08-02T12:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:46:18","slug":"roger-federers-former-coach-hails-alex-eala-after-naomi-osaka-masterclass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2575","title":{"rendered":"Roger Federer\u2019s former coach hails Alex Eala after Naomi Osaka masterclass"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roger Federer<\/a>\u2019s former coach has heaped praise on Alex Eala after she extended her impressive run at the Washington Open.<\/p>\n

The Filipina reached her maiden WTA 500 final by dominating four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka 6-4, 6-2 in just one hour and 16 minutes.<\/p>\n

Eala<\/a> and Osaka<\/a> exchanged breaks early in the opening set, but it was the Filipina who looked far more assured on serve, not facing another break point for the remainder of the match.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old will next face American Jessica Pegula, who rallied from 5-2 down in the opening set to defeat Diana Shnaider 7-5, 6-4 in the other semi-final.<\/p>\n

Pegula has now reached the 24th final of her career, with four of those coming this season.<\/p>\n

The victory over world No 13 Osaka represents another impressive result for Eala, who has now defeated six Top 10 players during the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Paul Annacone, who coached Roger Federer<\/a> from 2010 to 2013, did not hold back in his praise of the Filipina during a Tennis Channel segment following her semi-final victory.<\/p>\n

Latest Tennis News<\/h2>\n

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\u201cThis is amazing,\u201d began Annacone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is such a great journey to watch, because she had a springboard on to the Tour and she has done such a terrific job of getting comfortable with new sets of expectations in front of her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked a lot about the fanbase and the people that follow her, whether she likes it or not she\u2019s living life in a fishbowl right now, so how clearly can you go out and play with all those expectations?<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me to watch someone with those kind of skills and to be able to use them against the best players, the most powerful plays is really incredible. Because she played Osaka in a way that is really difficult to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cNaomi is one of the biggest hitters on tour, she said you know what she\u2019s great at doing that but I\u2019m still going to stand up on the baseline. Every second serve I get, I\u2019m going to take early, I\u2019m going to redirect, I\u2019m going to steal her time.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe committed to who she is as a player, who she is as a person and that won her that match. That clarity of how she needed to play was better than the power that Osaka could bring.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow can she do it to the next level? I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I asked Andrea earlier in the match, it\u2019s very interesting because she is vulnerable on her serve, but how many players are going to be able to overcome her leftiness to do something a little bit different to take advantage of the slower speeds and steal the time and get it back on her quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if you don\u2019t, she just gets back on the baseline and runs you like a yo-yo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory guarantees Eala a new career-high ranking of world No 24, four places above her previous best.<\/p>\n

Just 18 months ago, the young Filipina was ranked outside the world\u2019s top 150. Her rapid rise has been one of the standout stories on the WTA Tour, and there are few signs that her remarkable momentum is slowing as the North American hard-court swing continues.<\/p>\n

The post Roger Federer\u2019s former coach hails Alex Eala after Naomi Osaka masterclass<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roger Federer\u2019s former coach has heaped praise on Alex Eala after she extended her impressive run at the Washington Open. The Filipina reached her maiden WTA 500 final by dominating four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka 6-4, 6-2 in just one hour and 16 minutes. Eala and Osaka exchanged breaks early in the opening set, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}