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Paul McNamara

The city’s tennis chief is “quietly confident” that Filipino superstar Alexandra Eala, and fellow main attractions Paula Badosa and Diana Shanider, will show up for the 2026 Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open in November.
In the past two years, Michael Cheng Ming-git has seen Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu both withdraw with injuries on the eve of the WTA 250 tournament.
But the president of the Hong Kong, China Tennis Association said the “issue about no-shows has got nothing to do with the conviction of the players”.
“It has everything to do with it being the end of term, everyone is tired and sometimes they get injured,” Cheng added.
Aiming to lure more marquee names to the city, Cheng said he hoped that 2023 champion Leylah Fernandez would return for this year’s event, whose main draw begins on November 2.

Whether he would try to make it third time lucky with Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, was a “separate conversation”, although Cheng added that “if Naomi Osaka can play, she’ll play”.
Beaten in the second round last year by eventual champion Victoria Mboko, Eala, 21, said: “I loved playing in Hong Kong last year, and I’m super excited to come back. The crowds were amazing, and I love the city.”
Despite being injured, Osaka visited the 2024 edition. The four-time grand slam champion played in 2017 as a 20-year-old, beating Venus Williams in round two but falling to eventual champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the last eight.
Cheng said the Japanese world No 17 had cited her fondness for the food and the humidity as reasons for wanting to come back, along with remembering that “before she became famous, we really looked after her”.
“I can’t control their physical conditions, but I don’t want to invest in players who just come for [their own ends],” Cheng said. “I want them to enjoy being and competing in Hong Kong. That’s the requirement, and it’s how we have an authentic line-up.
“We’re not like some other countries that invest big time in player appearances. That’s not the philosophy or business model of HKCTA.”
Having climbed to world No 18 this year, the wildly popular Eala is sticking to her guns over playing in the Asian Games, despite having to miss the China Open, which is a WTA 1000 event and therefore mandatory for players.
Eala has asked for a release, but if it is not granted she can expect ranking and financial penalties. On the men’s side, Carlos Alcaraz, the world No 2, recently said he planned to start ignoring appearance demands to preserve his body.
Cheng acknowledged that “we want to get a piece of the top players everywhere they go”, but added that the WTA Tour “wants protection, and comfort that the players are fit and playing the events they want them to play”.
It has been a landmark week for Hong Kong tennis, after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced in his annual Policy Address on Wednesday that Victoria Park Tennis Stadium would be redeveloped.
Opened 44 years ago, the site is fit to host only the lowest-tier tournaments on the men’s and women’s tours.
Revealing that work on the upgrade would begin “as soon as is practicable”, Cheng said that “Hong Kong should be targeting 500-level events, minimum, for men and women”.
Should the women’s Hong Kong Open be bumped up from 250 status, it could conceivably move from its end-of-year graveyard slot.
Cheng said the HKCTA would “see what works for the tour”, but observed that the women’s players decamp en masse to Asia from late September until November.
“You’re looking at those slots to see what makes sense for Hong Kong and for the tour,” he added.
Despite the positive news, Hong Kong tennis is also facing one of its most important months in recent years. Having failed to meet the requirements for Tier A status at the city’s Sports Institute, it needs an Asian Games medal to be spared the axe.
Cheng pointed to the sport’s “consistent performance” and pair of National Games medals last year, but said, with his lawyer’s hat on, that “we have to follow the rules”.
Not winning a medal, the responsibility for which is likely to fall to Coleman Wong Chak-lam in the men’s singles, would mean not having “the same infrastructure or funding support, and we’d have to figure it out ourselves”.

Nonetheless, Cheng pleaded tennis’s case on account of its “four main pillars being on the way up”.
“My heart says, Everything is moving on the right trajectory, do we really want to put a brake on it?”
The task of obtaining the medal that would earn a reprieve will fall squarely at the feet of the world No 112 Wong, who is ranked higher than any player in the city’s history and was briefly inside the top 100.
“It’s such a brutal sport,” Cheng said. “This is where I challenge the [HKSI] rules, because you’re looking at one result over consistency, which isn’t fair. In tennis, you need consistency to break into the world’s top 100.”
Hong Kong will discover its fate before Badosa, the former world No 2, who decided she wanted to play during a training visit to the city last year, 2024 champion Shnaider and crowd darling Eala arrive in November.


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Alexandra Eala lost in the second round of last year's Hong Kong Open at Victoria Park, and hopes to be back this year. Photo: Eugene Lee

Russia’s Diana Shnaider won the Hong Kong Open title in 2024. Photo: May Tse

Coleman Wong will bear a heavy burden for Hong Kong at the Asian Games. Photo: AFP

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Cheng Chin-lung of Kitchee (right) gets stuck into Kitchee defender Fabio Erins last Saturday. Photo: HKFA

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Sport

Tennis

Filipino superstar is ‘super excited’ to return and Michael Cheng is hopeful Leylah Fernandez and Naomi Osaka will also come back


Filipino superstar is ‘super excited’ to return and Michael Cheng is hopeful Leylah Fernandez and Naomi Osaka will also come back.


Alexandra Eala

Emma Raducanu

Naomi Osaka

City tennis chief ‘quietly confident’ Alexandra Eala will play at Hong Kong Open

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Filipino superstar is ‘super excited’ to return and Michael Cheng is hopeful Leylah Fernandez and Naomi Osaka will also come back

Filipino superstar is ‘super excited’ to return and Michael Cheng is hopeful Leylah Fernandez and Naomi Osaka will also come back