MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Teenager Alexandra Eala pulled off another upset at the Miami Open on Wednesday when she knocked off five-time Grand Slam champion and second-seeded Iga Swiatek 6-2, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.
The 19-year-old left-hander, who received a wild card into the WTA 1000 event, is the only Filipino player on the professional tennis tour and entered ranked 140th.
During this history-making run, Eala reached her first WTA semifinals by beating her third major champion, this time in 1 hour, 37 minutes.
“I’m in complete disbelief right now, I’m on cloud nine,” Eala said in her on-court interview.
She will next face the winner of Wednesday’s match between Jessica Pegula and Emma Raducanu.
Eala now has defeated 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys, who is ranked No. 5. She then won on a fourth-round walkover over Paula Badosa, giving her added rest.
She hadn’t even beaten a top-40 player until Miami. After Swiatek hit long on match point, Eala seemed teary-eyed as she looked up.
“I really tried to soak it all in, because this has never happened to me before, and that’s why I was looking at the screen,” Eala said. “I really wanted to keep that moment in my mind.”
Swiatek broke Eala in the match’s first game, but the teenager broke right back. The first two games took 15 minutes to play.
On set point, Swiatek rapped a forehand long, ending the set in 42 minutes.
Though Eala represents the Philippines, she has lived the last six years in Mallorca, training at the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy.
“I would love to think that I make a difference,” Eala said. “That’s the only thing I can do to give back to my country is to help inspire, to inspire change and positive change, to inspire people to pick up a racket, to watch more tennis, watch more women’s tennis.”
Swiatek held serve just twice in the match, with Eala pounding service returns with her big forehand. It marked Swiatek’s third loss to a player ranked outside the top 100 in a WTA main draw.
“Her being a lefty didn’t surprise me, but for sure, like, she went all in,” Swiatek said. “She made these returns in and pretty long, and so it wasn’t easy to hit it back. She was pretty loosened up and just went for it.”
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