Eala, Osaka, & Shelton get VULNERABLE + DC Open Preview

I'm on-site here in the nation's capital for the Mubadala DC Citi Open where both the men's and women's fields are STACKED. I had the chance to speak with Alex Eala, Naomi Osaka, Ben Shelton, Venus Williams, who got vulnerable following their Wimbledon tournaments, all for very different reasons.

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Transcript

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The US North American hardcourt swing is here and I'm here in DC. Well, technically I'm staying in Maryland right now, but still the Mubadala DC Open main draw kicks off today and this combined ATP WTA 500 event features some big names including Naomi Osaka, Alex Ayala, Venus Williams, Ben Shelton, Francis Jaffo, and many more. I'll highlight some key quotes from all those players I just mentioned from Media Day, which was this past weekend, break down the draw and give some insights into how some of the players have been looking so far in practices based on what I've seen. Hello, my name is Christian Bass Knight, and welcome to Christian's Court where I cover tennis from all angles. If you have not yet already, make sure you subscribe and click that notification bell so you're notified whenever I post more DC Open related content. So, first talking about what happened in Media Day and highlighting some key quotes and potential stories from Media Day that I've I gathered that were interesting. Starting with one of the biggest stars of the tournament, Alex Ciala. And I was able to ask Alex a question. I asked her about her two breakthrough wins over Eagles Fiance, of course, at the Miami Open in the quarterfinals last year, 2025, and then most recently her win over Iga at Wimbledon this year in the third round, which allowed her to reach her first slam second week. And I basically asked her like how those triumphs compare as far as like you know the overall breakthrough moment of it all and what it means to her. First, she said, That's a great question, thank you. So yeah, but anyway, she said, of course, my Miami run was really my first breakthrough moment. It was the first time I ever played or won at that level, so in that sense, that will always be special for me. But this was a different circumstance, I think primarily because it was a grand slam. Second, I think I have been playing well the whole grass season. This is the furthest I've gotten a slam, so it meant a lot to me going in. I knew kind of what it would mean if I were able to show up at a certain level and play at a certain level, win or lose. I knew what it would mean personally for me to play against Iga and her being the defending champion, of course, on center court. It was very sentimental for me. Then Alex was asked by another reporter how it felt having such a large population of Filipino fans following her everywhere and supporting her, especially here on the East Coast. And they asked if it felt like a burden to Alex, and she said it's definitely not a burden. I would describe it more as a privilege, and I'm very privileged to be able to carry my flag and to represent everything that comes with that. I'm very grateful to everybody who comes out to see me. I think it's great for them also to experience it because I know a lot of them have never been to tennis events, so I'm happy also to be able to, in one way or another, introduce a tennis event in their life. I think that's a beautiful thing. No doubt Alex is a trailblazer and an icon in tennis, and a couple of other Asian tennis icons and trailblazers did Media Day and they're here in DC, Kenny Shakori and Naomi Osaka, and both of them were asked about Alex during Media Day yesterday. Kay said, I hope she can jump up this year again. I know she's been playing really well since last year, two years ago. She has a lot of weapons, I think. She can be top 10 anytime if she stays healthy and plays good, mentally stay tough. When Naomi was asked about Alex, she said, I don't know much about Alex, but I think she's incredible. I think she's a star, and it's just really cool to have someone like her that I guess people can look up to. For me, I think it's amazing that she's such an inspiration. I really love hearing her talk because it's really cool the things that she says. And on the topic of Naomi, she had a few interesting things to share during her Media Day interview with the press. She spoke about her recent run to the Woman in quarterfinals, and she said that while it was a positive run, of course, and gave her a lot of confidence, she was also pretty sad after the loss to Caroline Muhova in that quarterfinal match. Osaka said, getting to the quarterfinals at Wilmwood in did give me confidence, but I was kind of sad that I wasn't able to go further because I felt that I had the opportunity to do that. For a long time, maybe for like a couple days or so, I was just really disappointed in myself. Maybe that's just my mindset because I feel like I'm so hard on myself. Obviously, if someone gets that far in Wilmwood in, it's something to be happy about. But for me, I really felt like it was kind of my time to do something. So I was just wrestling with that for a while. Life moves on, so now I'm here. It's the surface that I have the best results on, so I can only hope to be really optimistic and just hope that I play really well. That was particularly interesting to me because normally Naomi she's likes to stay positive, especially on non-hardcourt surfaces. I know she was pretty positive, I think, judging from her post-match press conference after her loss to Sal Blanca at Rolling Garrett's. But I think her beating Salablanka at Womboden, that definitely gave her the belief that she could go all the way, even though it was on grass where she hadn't had a lot of success on prior. Plus, she hadn't made the final stuff about on board. So I think honestly, that's a good sign that Naomi was obviously not satisfied with her run to the Woman quarterfinals, and hopefully that run will do more positive than harm. And like she said, it'll give her more confidence to do even better now that we're on hard courts, where that's obviously her best surface. But Venus Williams, also gotta mention her. She spoke about her sister Serena, who recently made her come back to singles at Woman, where she lost to my joint in a three-setter, and of course, she was forced to pull out of doubles due to a knee issue that she sustained during that match. But I asked Venus her thoughts on Serena's level, seeing that Venus watched that match on center court or in center court. And Venus was pleased with her younger sister's form. She said, she played Stellar in that match. I think her level was so extraordinarily high. It was very unlucky. Sometimes you play players who are on fire and they don't seem to maintain that level afterwards. You'll have to ask her what's next, but she looks great. I immediately caught some shade. Like, is that shade phaser? Is that shade Venus? Because she said sometimes you play players who are on fire and they don't seem to maintain that level afterwards. But I think Maya joint, she definitely played well in that match, I'd say. And I know obviously a lot of people knew that she had an 11-match losing streak at troll level before she beat Serena. But I mean she took a set off of Alex the next round, so I don't know if that comment was totally entirely fair, but it was definitely to me, I interpreted a little bit of shade in that in that comment. But Venus later on in her press conference, or I think it was actually before, but she said that she would love to play doubles with Serena at the US Open. And I also ran into a supporter who said that they hope to see Serena and Venus play doubles in Cincy. They told that to Venus, and then Venus reportedly said that's the plan. So Serena, she would not be playing Toronto at least in singles. All the wild cards have been accounted for there. But I wouldn't be surprised if she played maybe both singles and doubles at Cincinnati. Now many of the top American men took to Media Day for their press conferences, including, you know, Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz, Francis Teafo, and Tommy Paul. And they kind of reflected on their seasons thus far, considering how we've we've met the midpoint of the year. Ben Shelton, he said that it's been a weird season for him with a lot of highs and lows. He acknowledged the three titles he's won in Dallas, Munich, and Stuttgart, and that that's already more than he's won in a year ever. But said that there's many things that he's been frustrated and disappointed by with his game, and he feels that those things have contributed to his early round exits at the last two slams, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon. And I followed up with Shelton and asked him what specifically frustrated him about his game. And he said, overall, I say performance. I don't know how much of it has just been my level or specific matches, specific situations, decision making. I guess more the inconsistency of my play is what I've been more frustrated about. Obviously, one of my biggest goals on tour is to get to the end of tournaments and finish off the week and win titles, which is a part that I didn't have as much before that I'm getting better and better at now. Ben also mentioned the early round exits being quote unquote trap rounds for him, but acknowledged that the tour has a lot of depth. Now, newlywed Tommy Paul is in somewhat of a similar situation to Shelton. He's at 32 wins right now in 2026, which is already four more than he earned all of 2025. And also right now, Tommy's at his highest win percentage season right now and is on pace for the most wins in a season ever. But he's one and four in finals this year, which seems to be his biggest gripe. The first half of the season, I won a lot of matches, but it's weird because I lost a lot of finals, Paul said. Obviously, you have to win a lot of matches to make it to the finals, but it was a lot of letdowns so far this year, in my opinion. A lot of people have been telling me, Oh, what a great year. You've been playing great. But I mean, as tennis players, especially me, I look at the matches that I lost and try to learn from them. But those are the matches that I remember. Going through the rest of the year, I want the bigger trophies, not the smaller ones. That's the goal. Taylor Fritz has zero titles so far in 2026, but he had a solid grass season that saw him reach back-to-back finals in Stuttgart and Halle before he fell to Alexander Zverev in the woman in quarterfinals. Taylor's knee tendonitis issue flared up during that quarterfinal match, which has been a factor for him that knee has this entire season. But Fritz seems to be in a positive mindset right now and seems to be primed to make a good push for the second half of the season. It hasn't been the best season, but I think if I play the level that I think I should be playing at for the rest of the year, I have a lot of tournaments that I like for the rest of the year, and I think I'm in a decent place to still have a strong finish for the year, Fritz said. Number six seed here in DC, Francis Tialfo, seemed the most pleased out of all the American men I heard from in Media Day. And it's understandable since he cut his ranking in half from the start of the year, which was at 34, to now he's sitting at 17. Plus, he won the biggest title of his career in Haley not too long ago. I've been extremely consistent this year, Tialfo said, winning a lot of matches. Most matches I've won. I've been really happy with it. I've been giving myself a chance week in, week out in the draws of beating guys, and I guess making it super tough for guys. Every match I've played has been we're going to the wire, whether win or lose. It's been good, it's been a lot of fun. Hope to continue. Now getting into the draws for both the men and women. First, talking about the conditions, I've noticed from watching players in their practice sessions that the balls have been flying on them quite a bit. And Alex DiMonor, the defending champion, mentioned that himself in his press conference. And honestly, I think it's kind of difficult to bring your best tennis for DC. It's the first tournament of the North American Hardcourt swing for a lot of players, so they they're not gonna bring necessarily their best form, I think, out the gates, specifically in this tournament. But first, talking about the women's draw, it did look a little bit weak in some areas with some late minute withdrawals, including off the top of my head, Ivo Jovich, uh Jasmine Paulini, Marta Kostuk, but it's still a solid draw. I think the top half of the draw is a little bit weaker compared to the bottom. Jessica Pagula will be a big favorite in my eyes to reach the semifinals at least. Anna Khanskaya is her projected quarterfinal opponent, and those two have had a few big battles, Pagula and Kalinskaya. They've met five times and all five of their meetings, went the distance, but Pagula does have the four-to-one head-to-head edge. Diana Schneider is Pagula's projected semifinal opponent, and Diana will open against the winner of Venus Williams and Anastasia Potopova. Venus is still seeking her first win in exactly a year when she beat Peyton Stearns here in straight sets on the first round. And Venus and Schneider are actually doubles partners here in DC. And Venus was supposed to play with Alex Yala, but Alex basically said in her press conference that she's not 100% ready physically to give it her all. And she wants Venus to have the best of the best as far as doubles partners is concerned. So I thought that was interesting too. But Madison Keyes, she opens against Lut Merle-Samsonova, and she's also projected to play Schneider in the quarterfinals, and then Pagula in the semifinals. I think it'll be between Pagula and Keys to reach the finals in this top half, in my eyes. Now, the bottom half, in my opinion, of this woman's draw is more spicy. You have the all-American battle between Alma Navarro and Sofia Cannon, which is today, Monday. And then Osaka is Navarro's projected quarterfinal opponent. But Ashton Krueger could be dangerous for Osaka in the second round. Naomi honestly looked a little bit erratic from me watching her practice match or practice set or whatever that she had against Layla Fernandez. Her strokes didn't look too great to be transparent. Um, but obviously she can play her way into form here. But speaking of Fernandez, the defending champion and seventh seed Layla has Magdalinette in the opening round. They play first on today, Monday. And Layla is working with Eric Heckman, who formerly worked with Venus and Serena. He also worked with Haley Baptiste, and I believe that's like the first time that Layla has brought in an outside voice in addition to her father, Jorge. So I'm intrigued to see what how that plays out and what Layla would have to say after her match today, assuming she wins. But if Layla wins, then she would get the winner of either Alex Yala or Jung Chenwin, which is definitely the big blockbuster first round match on the woman's side. These two will be playing for the first time on the main WTA tour, but they played four years ago at the Asian Games in 2022, which Jang won 6-3 in the third set. I think Shin Win should have the slight edge in that she played on hard court recently in Athens after Wombledon, and I think she might have the physical edge considering how Alex did pull out of doubles alongside Venus, and she does sometimes have a lot of strapping on her arms and such. But I think Alex has the edge in the confidence department considering how she's just coming off her best run out of slam. And then Zhang, she mentioned even herself in her press conference that she has not won three matches in a row at a tournament in a long time. And I think she even acknowledged herself that her biggest obstacle is just mental. So we'll see how that plays out. It'll definitely be interesting. But I might give the edge to Zhang, but I would love to see Fernandez Iala, the battle of the Filipina lefty players. Alina Spitolina, the second seed, is down there below. Um, so of course I think she'll be a favorite to reach the finals among a lot of people. But if I were to predict the finals, I'd say maybe Pagula Osaka, even though Naomi's form could be a little bit shaky. If not Pagula Osaka, I'd say maybe Pagula, Navarro, or Keys Navarro or Keys Osaka, but I think it'll be an American in the finals nonetheless on the woman's side. Now looking at the men's side, it's a bloodbath. And this is the first year that they shrunk the draw sizes from 48 to 32. None of the top seeds have buys in the first round, and the top seed and defending champion, Alex T. Manoor, has a rough opening round opponent and Stefano Sisipaas. Sisipaws hasn't had the best season for real, although he did just come off a title and gustad. However, the Greekman has a overwhelming 12-1 head-to-head edge over Di Manor, which is insane to think about. But the winner of Demonor and CC Pass will take on the winner of an all-qualifier showdown between Marcos Giron and Cruz Hewitt, who is the son of Hall of Famer Leighton Hewitt. Cruz came through qualifying, although he didn't have to close out a match because both his opponents in qualifying, Dusan Laiovic and Zach Sfida, retired due to various issues in their matches. But this would be Cruz's first tour-level ATP main draw match, so that's exciting for him. Yaka Mendric is there in this quarter. He's Demonor's projected quarterfinal opponent, and I think he will be the favorite to come through to the quarterfinals. Although Brandon Nakashima will definitely want to have something to say about that. Taylor Fritz is Demonor's projected semifinal opponent, and Fritz has a pretty tough draw himself. He'll open against Juju Burgs tonight, and then he could face Newlywed. Again, shout out to both Paul and Demonor for recently getting married, but Tommy Paul is a potential second-round opponent for Taylor Fritz. And then also Fritz could get another American learner Tien in the quarterfinals. Now Tian has a pretty tricky path himself. He'll open against veteran Adrian Manorino and then could get another lefty in round two and Jack Draper, who's playing his first tournament since skipping Won within due to that reoccurring left arm injury. Hey y'all, so around this time in the video, I talked about Jack Draper and how he's returning from injury and how he looked good in practice. But unfortunately, he had to withdraw from the tournament due to that same left arm injury. Honestly, I was fearing that. So very unfortunate. He posted kind of uh an emotional sounding caption on Instagram. So I know he's frustrated. I know all his fans are frustrated. Shout out to Court with Caitlin. It's truly unfortunate because he's obviously so talented, but his body just can't align with that talent. So hopefully, we'll see him maybe in I don't think he's signed up for uh Montreal. He's supposed to be playing some challenges, I believe. So really unfortunate, truly. I know he's playing mixed doubles with Jessica Bagula. So just prayers up to Jack Draper and his body and his team, his family, his Andy Murray, and yeah. Now transitioning and looking at the bottom half, to me, the big blockbuster round one match is between Arthur Feast and Rafa Hodar, two young next gen stars. This will be a rematch of their Barcelona Open semifinal, which Feast took in three sets. Arthur honestly has not looked that great in his practice session, or at least the one practice session that I saw in DC. But obviously, you can't take too, you can't read too much into practices. Honestly, I feel like I would favor Hodar though in this match. Now, the winner of Feast Hodar would take on the winner of Nisha Corey, Kay Nisha Corey, and Jerry Shang. Kay said that they're both friends and they both trained in Florida a few times in the weeks leading up to this tournament, so that'll be interesting. And this will be Shang's first tournament since Dubai 2026. He's a very injury-prone player. Of course, Kay is, which is why he's retiring at the end of this season. But Fisa's projected quarterfinal opponent in DC is Lorenzo Musetti, who was back from a left thigh injury he sustained during the clay season. He hasn't played any matches since Rome. But he has a tough opening round opponent and Matteo Arnaldi, his compatriot. The last quarter belongs to Ben Shelton, and he could have a quarterfinal rematch with his friend Francis Tiafo. Um, and Ben won that match in the quarterfinals here last year. Both Ben and Francis will open up against interesting lefty opponents. Tiafo plays Terrence Axmine for the fourth time this season alone, and Francis has won all three of their previous meetings. Ben meanwhile plays 22-year-old American Martin Damm, who came through qualifying. And Ben, his last three opening round losses at tournaments were all to qualifiers. So definitely he has a qualifier curse right now. We'll see if he's able to knock or to beat that here in this tournament. But I think that'll be a match to watch for sure. Now, Ben, from what I saw in his practice session against Jack Draper, did not look that great. As far as his forehand is concerned, it looked a little bit erratic. So that's something definitely to look out for in this tournament if Ben's forehand holds up. But I definitely think his serve will be a huge shot for him, of course, this tournament. Briefly giving my little picks for the men's side, I think we could definitely have an all-American final. Maybe between Fritz and Tiafo, that's kind of where I'm leading right now. If not Fritz in the finals, I think it could be obviously Tommy Paul, um, Learnatian, or a non-American Jakub Mendric. I think he could come through and win this title. As far as the bottom half, I think there's a little bit more opportunity there. I am not that confident in Fees' form, but Hodar can definitely do something for sure. And then Shelton, he could he could definitely round his way into form as well, but I think it might be Francis' time to get his revenge in that way, and maybe he can go all the way to win the title. But if I were to give a prediction, I'd say Fritz wins the title. Speaking of titles, I do want to acknowledge our four title winners from this past week. And Kitchbule, Quentin Halis, won his first ATP tour title, taking down the defending champion Alexander Bublick, 6'4, 7, 6. And Esteril, Luka Van Ashe, the 22-year-old Frenchman, outlasted Alexander Bloch, a fellow young guy, 6'4, 4, 6, 7, 5, for his first ATP title. And then in Prague, 18-year-old Austrian Lily Tagger won her WTA debut title, defeating Daria Schninger 7662. And then in Homborg, Tamara Korpash defeated Anna Bondor 6363 for her second WTA title. And she's the first German champion in Homborg since Daffy Graf won the title 34 years ago. But that is all I have for this news update video. Let me know your thoughts on everything I discussed, including any notable media day quotes, plus the DC open draw and your predictions of who you think will take the title. Again, make sure y'all subscribe and click that notification bell so you're notified whenever I post more content from DC, because there's a lot more I haven't even combed through. But thank y'all so much for watching and for your support. And I'll see y'all next time here on Christians Court.