![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/sports.inquirer.net\/files\/2026\/06\/2025-alexandra-eala-lexus-birmingham-open-r1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAlex Eala in motion through the WTA 125 Birmingham Open. \u2013BIRMINGHAM OPEN PHOTO<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
MANILA, Philippines\u2013Alex Eala ousted Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand, 6-3, 6-2, to secure a spot within the semifinals of the Birmingham Open on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Eala overcame a tricky challenge from Sawangkaew but found her stride in each sets to rearrange a semifinal duel with Switzerland\u2019s Rebeka Masarova.<\/p>\n
After Sawangkaew took a 2-1 lead within the second set, Eala strung together five straight games to seal the match in a single hour and 21 minutes.<\/p>\n
It was an analogous story in the primary set because the tournament\u2019s top seed broke away from a 1-1 deadlock by winning 4 straight games for a commanding 5-1 advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll take the experience that I got from this match,\u201d said Eala, who moved inside two wins of her second WTA 125 title after capturing the Guadalajara crown last yr.<\/p>\n
The Filipino tennis star said she took pride in facing a fellow Southeast Asian on the court.<\/p>\n
Eala scored a repeat victory over Sawangkaew, whom she defeated in the ladies\u2019s tennis singles final of the 2025 Southeast Asian Games.<\/p>\n
Eala and Masarova, ranked 132 within the WTA,\u00a0 will square off for a spot in the ultimate later Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Alex Eala in motion through the WTA 125 Birmingham Open. \u2013BIRMINGHAM OPEN PHOTO MANILA, Philippines\u2013Alex Eala ousted Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand, 6-3, 6-2, to secure a spot within the semifinals of the Birmingham Open on Saturday. Eala overcame a tricky challenge from Sawangkaew but found her stride in each sets to rearrange a semifinal duel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":346349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[9850,1568,2749,34260,1569,1574,52540,3456],"class_list":["post-346348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-advances","tag-alex","tag-beats","tag-birmingham","tag-eala","tag-open","tag-sawangkaew","tag-semis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346348"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346351,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346348\/revisions\/346351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}